Saved
by B of Ericaland
Summary: alternate ending to season 1. what if maura was grabbed instead of jane?
1. The Same Secret

DISCLAIMER:: not mine. i own nothing, just borrow it for the execution of my master plans

A/N:: this came to me while i was bored at work. it's an alternate ending to season 1. enjoy. reviews really appreciated. they make me smile.

-/-

Loving Jane Rizzoli had never been part of her plan.

When Maura Isles had first started working in conjunction with Boston homicide, it had been a strictly professional decision. There was nothing personal about it. The best way to further her career ambitions was to take the job. So she did. And then Jane Rizzoli happened.

It was not something that happened quickly. The easiness was always there. They clicked somehow, something Maura had never experienced before. But she was still the same socially awkward individual she'd always been and there were times when she could even see Jane's resolve wearing in her presence.

She wasn't aware of the exact moment when things changed for her. One day the love she felt for Jane was entirely platonic and the next she was picturing her future with the detective. At first, the change went completely unnoticed. Who didn't want to spend the rest of their life with their best friend? Plus, wanting Jane to be in her future, a part of it, wasn't the same thing as wanting to be with Jane in her future and she was considered that the first was her reasoning behind her sudden daydreams.

And then the realization hit her full force in the face. It wasn't one of those moments you plan, a big moment you believe will be life changing. No revolutions happened, no oppressed countries were liberated, Jimmy Choo hadn't released a new line. It was a seemingly normal minute of a seemingly normal day in a seemingly normal week. They were sitting across from each other at the Dirty Robber along with Detectives Korsak and Frost. She couldn't remember the joke it was that Korsak told but Jane rolled her eyes and grinned. Maura took the rare opportunity to observe the detective, the lines of her face, the brightness in her eyes. It was then she knew what she felt for Jane and in what context.

It didn't appall her or cause her panic. It was just a fact of her life, a part of who she was. It occurred to her that telling Jane was the most appropriate step to take but she held back, not so much out of fear of rejection or loss of friendship, but more that she didn't want to burden Jane. It's quite a terribly guilty feeling you can get when one expresses a love in which you cannot return. The last thing she would ever want to do is burden Jane.

-/-

Jane Rizzoli had loved Maura Isles from the moment she laid eyes on her. The attraction was so instantaneous that it knocked the breath right out of her. Maura swept into the bullpen that first day looking as if she had just stepped off a runway. At the time Jane had figured she was just trying to make a good impression her first day at work, but she soon came to realize that this was Maura's "casual" attire and that one of her designer outfits cost more than Jane made in a month.

She had stared curiously at this newcomer to their little family. Maura may have looked like a model but she shied away from the attention, as if the tension in her muscles would somehow make the files on the detectives' desks more interesting and take the spotlight off her. Maura was a mystery to Jane from that very first day and she loved every minute of it.

It all came together then, her life, the reasons why she'd spent her childhood days playing a game of baseball with all the boys rather than sitting on the sidelines with the rest of the girls giggling when a boy looked their way. She'd always been rough and tough, not because she felt she had something to prove but because she generally enjoyed being competitive, one of the boys. Maura made her see what had always been right in front of her face.

She knew she could never tell anyone, especially not Maura. But the draw was too hard to resist and so she struck up a friendship with the medical examiner, figuring that being close to her as a friend would be better than not knowing her at all. And once she had gotten to know her, she couldn't imagine not having Maura in her life, the concept seemed foreign and wrong.

So she kept her love a secret from Maura, for fear that the medical examiner would not only reject her, but take away the one thing she valued above all others, her friendship. Losing that would be her downfall.

But Maura hardly made it easy on her. Beyond her adorable antics and the suggestive way she dressed was the way she sometimes handled herself around Jane. There were times when Jane would catch her gaze and it almost seemed as if her eyes held a secret too. And there were times when she'd say things… like after they found the body of Tommy O'Rourke and she and Maura had spent the night at Jane's apartment talking.

"I know it was him!" Maura crossed her arms across her chest and stared angrily at Jane.

Jane smirked. "I thought you didn't jump to conclusions, Dr. Isles. I thought you needed evidentiary support to make any sort of statement of fact."

Maura scoffed. "It is a fact!" She took the glass of wine Jane held out to her. "There was an ice pick stuck through my baby photo and into my brother's killer's chest. That sends a pretty clear message in my mind about who is responsible." She took a sip of wine. "Who kills for somebody else?"

Jane sat down next to her, setting her beer bottle on the side table. "I would."

Maura nearly spit out her wine. "What?"

Jane nodded. "If it meant protecting someone I cared about, Frost, Korsak, Frankie, you… I would."

Maura was silent.

"You don't think you would?"

Maura shook her head. "There are very few situations that warrant the taking of another human being's life. I spend my days giving the dead a voice because no body else will listen to what they have to say. I speak for them because they can't speak for themselves. I'm not sure I could do that, take someone's life, unless it was absolutely necessary for survival. I'm not sure I could kill for someone I love, but I could die. I would die to save someone I love; I'd die to save you."

Jane looked up into Maura's eyes and saw a calmness and sincerity there that touched her and the words "I love you" almost slipped from her lips.

The conversation had switched to more pleasant topics after that and the opportunity was lost.

But Jane never forgot that night, or what Maura said.

-/-

A/N:: after this the story is going to be more dialouge and real time events. this was just necessary background. reviews?


	2. Lights Out

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine. damn.

A/N:: muffins make my world go round, just putting that out there. anyways, the feedback from the first chapter was AMAZING! i've never got so much feedback in just a couple days and i appreciate it. so here's a new chapter. it involves dialouge and such but if you've seen the finale, you mostly knows how this goes with the exception of a few added things from me. more to come tomorrow. enjoy and review!

-/-

So Tommy was out. That news was…less than ideal. Just as Frankie had looked up to her when they were children, she had looked up to Tommy. He could do no wrong in her eyes. He was her cooler older brother and she wanted to be just like him. And then he started drinking with his buddies. First, it was just a couple times in high school. They'd sneak out down to Ricky Franco's basement and get wasted. But once he hit his early twenties he was drunk at least two nights a week. Then it was three and eventually, it got to where Jane saw more of him drunk then she did sober. By the time he got locked up, Jane had lost her admiration for him. He was troubled; he needed help, but that didn't mean his misdeeds should go unnoticed or unpunished.

Her phone rang, breaking her thoughts. She looked at her mom momentarily, wishing there was something she could do to force the older woman to deal with the reality of the situation before reaching for the small device attached to her hip. "Rizzoli."

Losing one of your own was never good news to a cop. To lose anyone was hard, cops were the protectors of the people and if someone was lost to the evil of another it meant they weren't doing their jobs perfectly. But, to lose one of their own, that was the biggest failure. If the guardians couldn't protect themselves, then what good were they to the rest of the world?

The look in Angela Rizzoli's eyes when Jane told her that a cop had been shot broke her daughter's heart. They had talked about it several times since the beginning of her career in law enforcement. She believed it was a risk she made for the greater good. But all her mother saw were the consequences. Being married to her job for one and then there was always the possibility that one day she would get that phone call saying Jane or Frankie had been killed on the job. Every time Jane came home with stories of colleagues get wounded, or worse, when Hoyt had gone after Jane, it always brought the reality right back into both their laps.

-/-

Maura woke up at 6am on the day she died. She had always been an early riser; yoga was much more fulfilling when done at an early hour. But something about today woke her earlier than usual. She could feel it in the air, something was going to happen today, something big.

She was in the morgue, per usual, when she got the call from the scene, gsw, cop. She arrived at the scene shortly before Jane did. He was there, center of the floor, the red circular wound bright on his forehead, a halo of crimson blood surrounding his head, his eyes staring up at a ceiling he no longer saw. Silently to herself, Maura said a little prayer for the detective, one she'd never had the pleasure of meeting, but still, he was one of her team all the same. Then she got to work, listening to what this man's death could tell her about the person who robbed him of his life.

-/-

"He has a wife and two kids." She looked up to see a distraught Jane and an even more upset Korsak standing over her and the body.

"I knew his father. I knew Danny since he was this tall. It's a damn shame." Korsak stared at the body with sad, guilty eyes.

"One shot to the head." Jane looked at the body and Maura.

"It looks like a large caliber fire arm." Maura was trying to be helpful, though she was stating the obvious.

"It's a .45 caliber." Jane looked away, and then gave Korsak a pat on the back.

-/-

Jane wasn't exactly excited to be babysitting Detective Bobby Marino after his flare up at the scene of his partner's murder, but she didn't know if she was in any condition to be out on the street when the news about Tommy coming home was weighing heavily on her mind. Part of her wished she could press fast forward on the day so it could be night and Maura and her could be curled up on Maura's couch talking things out. Instead she had to settle for talking it out around the coffee machine.

The coffee was stale and she felt like spitting it back into the cup but held back, not wanting to be unladylike in front of Maura. "God, when was that made? November?" She poured some sugar in to make the flavor less depressing. "Marino wants a cup of coffee, there's none upstairs. The guy's a wreck." Setting down the sugar she'd finished pouring into her cup, she grabbed another cup and poured his.

"I've tried everything, British strawberries, fennel, bok choy." Maura distracted rambled as she grabbed the glass carafe and poured her own cup.

"Are we in the same conversation?" Jane looked at Maura in confusion.

"Sorry, I was talking about Bass."

"You're obsessing over your turtle again?"

"Tortoise." Maura was about to launch into the distinct difference between a common turtle and a tortoise, when she noticed what Jane was doing to Marino's coffee. "He likes salt in his coffee?"

Jane scrunched her face in confusion and then looked down at what her own hand was unknowingly doing.

Damn Maura. It was just like her to look at Jane with those concerned eyes and make her spill her guts. And that's exactly what she did. She told her about the DUI's and hitting the priest. She told her about how her parents walked around in denial.

"I'm really sorry." She could tell Maura meant it.

"Thank you." She grabbed the new cup of coffee she had just made for Marino, sans salt. "Don't worry about it. We got too much to do today to worry about Tommy." She turned and made a beeline for the elevators, stopping to console the officer at the front desk.

She pressed the call button for the west bank of elevators and Maura did the same for the east elevators.

Maura didn't want to leave Jane in such a tense moment. She was concerned for her. She wanted to say something consoling, something to make her feel better, but instead all that came out was "I'll call you when I get the results."

"Alright".

Maura's elevator door slid open first and she reluctantly slipped inside the metal box.

"Oh I got to log this into evidence." Jane clutched the pack of cigarettes still in the pocket of her blazer.

Maura brightened; the evidence lockers were right outside the morgue.

"I gotta take this to Marino." She looked at the cup of coffee in her hand. She warred between the two for a moment, but when her elevator doors slid open she took it as a sign to go back upstairs to Marino. The evidence lockers weren't going anywhere. "I'll see you later." She waved over her shoulder.

"Jane!"

"Yeah?" Jane whirled in the elevator and put a hand on the door to keep in open.

"If you want to talk about your brother or just, avoid the subject, I'm here."

Jane was certain she couldn't hide the love in her eyes, but Maura didn't seem to notice. So she smiled. "I know."

Maura gave a slight nod and stepped back into her own lift, knowing Jane would come to talk to her when she was ready.

-/-

Maura had found nothing to report nearly two hours later when she finally took a break. She wouldn't know if Danny was using until after the toxicology reports came back but he didn't seem to fit the profile of a junkie. He had a family and he had been dedicated to his job. He was killed for the drugs, that's what everybody assumed, but if Maura had to make an assumption, something she never did except in the privacy of her own mind, she would wager to guess that he was shot to be kept quiet.

Maura heard a faint popping noise and looked around. No one was anywhere near the morgue. And then she remembered Bass. She really had to make Bass eat something.

-/-

The witness was giving her nothing. All she'd gathered in the half hour plus they had been talking had been that the shooter was male and if they managed to find him, she could pick him out of a lineup.

A soft _pop pop pop_ preceded the power failure but it barely registered as thought worthy in Jane's mind. Buildings made all sorts of sounds when the people in them remained quiet enough and power outages were common in the city.

"Oh my…there here, there here." The witness started to freak and Jane jumped out of her chair to calm the girl down. But even as she reassured her that it was just a power failure, she felt a tightness in the pit of her stomach that told her more was going on than the lights going out.


	3. Shots in the Stairwell

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine. sigh.

-/-

Maura was making yet another attempt to get Bass to eat something when she heard them. The man talking sounded rushed as if time were of the essence. She hadn't been aware that there were other people in the building, besides herself, Jane, Marino, Frankie, and the officer manning the front desk. She heard the man indicate the evidence lockers just outside her office and then metal door were opening and closing. Her back hit the desk as she heard the first shot go off. They were looking for something, though she couldn't imagine what. The evidence stored in those lockers was only on current cases, and right now the priority case was the murder of Danny Clark and there was no evidence in the lockers regarding that case.

The second she heard the men leave, her first thought was of Jane. She reached for the phone and started to dial the upstairs extension when she realized there was no dial tone. They'd cut the phone lines too. Something bad was happening here, and Maura had a feeling it was all connected to Danny Clark's murder.

-/-

Jane was still trying to calm the frantic witness when she saw them through the little sliver of window on the door of the interrogation room. They were armed, it was the first thing her eyes went to. Automatics, pull the trigger and the bullets fly, perfect for sweeping a crowd if you're in the business of killing. She counted two but there backs were too her and she had the element of surprise. Her hand went to her gun, or where it should have been. She hadn't brought it into the interrogation room with her. She couldn't risk taking the witness, or herself for that matter, out of that door and she motioned to the only other way out of the room. There was no window on this door and there might very well be another shooter waiting on the other side but she had no choice. There was no way she could take them unarmed.

They made it to the stairwell unnoticed and immediately the girl made for the downward leading stairs. Jane grabbed the back of her jacket and pulled her back. The shooters obviously came in the front door and they had just been sweeping the floor they were on which meant they had already seized the lower floors. The safest way was up. They heard more gunfire and Jane stopped the girl on the landing between the second and third floors. She clamped a hand over the girl's mouth just as the stairwell door they had just exited burst open. The two men she had seen through the window in the interrogation room burst in and headed down. She felt a little rush of relief that she had made the right decision.

She left the girl there to go back and help whoever she knew they had just shot at and to find Marino. The bullpen was empty, one officer down and Marino nowhere in sight. She checked the man, he was gone. She snuck over to her desk and saw then the trail of blood. Either the dead officer had gotten a good shot in before he went down or they'd shot Bobby and taken him. The blood was minimal, not a kill shot. Her hand found the holster she had taken off, but her gun was gone. She tried the phone but there was no dial tone and a few runs of the computer mouse brought nothing but a blank monitor screen. There was no option but to return to the stairwell. The radio was an afterthought. She knew no one was in range but she thought it better to be safe than sorry.

She had just reached the door to the stairwell when she heard her screams. Then the shot went off and her voice was gone as if it never existed. Jane didn't know what compelled her to open the door. She had no way to defend herself against a firearm and the likelihood that the shooter was still there, in the stairwell, was high. But the cop in her taught her to run towards the danger, not hide from it, so she pushed open the door without hesitation.

As expected a man with a gun was standing over the dead body of the witness. He looked up at the sound of the door opening. Jane was defenseless in the face of the gun he raised. She was unarmed and she realized at that moment she was going to die here in this stairwell. Maura, please make it out alive. She prepared herself for the inevitable shot and prayed it would be quick. Her impulse was to shut her eyes but she knew she wouldn't. She'd face death head on.

When the shot finally rang out, as time seems to go in ridiculously slow motion in the last few moments of one's life, it took a moment for her to comprehend it wasn't her that got hit with the bullet, it was the shooter. She looked up to see Marino hobble down the stairs. His leg was wrapped in a makeshift bandage that blood was already seeping through. She ran up the stairs to him.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Marino nodded. He seemed out of breath, but fine.

She bent down to check the witness only to confirm the obvious. "She's dead."

"I got here a second too late."

Jane frowned. Just like a cop to blame themselves. "Not for me. Thank you. Can you walk?" She pointed to his bandaged thigh.

"Yeah. But we can't get out of here. They're watching all the exits."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know."

Jane looked back at the witness. "I thought I could protect her."

A shot rang out on some floor above them and they both looked upwards.

"If they were here to kill the witness, why aren't they gone?" A deeper concern gripped her gut. What exactly were these people after? With the power down, by their own doing, they obviously weren't looking for any files or trying to raid the database. They'd left all the hard copies in the bullpen as far as she could tell. And almost everyone in the building had been killed. What was the objective?

"What'd she say?" Bobby glanced at the dead witness.

"She said she saw Danny's shooter. She said she could ID him."

"You get a name?"

"No, nothing." She glanced between Marino and up the stairwell. "They ripped apart all the desks in the squad room, what are they looking for?"

"I don't know." Bobby noticed the radio she clutched in her hand then. "You got a walkie? Is it working?"

"Only channel 12, homicide is out of reach." She shook her head. A portable radio wasn't going to save them now.

"What do you think?"

"I got to find Maura and get her out of here." _Please let her be alive. Please God let her still be alive._


	4. Trapped

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine.

A/N:: okay, so this is the last chapter just reiterating what happened in the finale. next chapter will be the alternate ending. enjoy and review, please and thank you.

-/-

"Jane."

Was that…Frankie?

Jane crept over to the railing and looked down. Nearly three stories below, her brother was resting against the wall.

"Jane."

"Frankie?" Jane didn't think, she just bolted past the body of the dead shooter and down to her obviously wounded brother. She crouched next to him and inspected his wounds. He was shot, that much was obvious from the holes in his uniform and the evident pain on his face.

"Do you think you could make it down to the morgue if we help you?" Jane knew Frankie didn't have a chance if she didn't get him to Maura, the morgue was the only place with medical supplies of any kind that was in reach, and it was below ground, so the shooters had probably searched there already, especially if they were blocking the morgue exit. Again Jane's thoughts wandered to Maura and she prayed silently to herself that the medical examiner had the good sense to have escaped before the men took over the building, or that she had at least been smart enough to hide.

Frankie winced in pain but nodded.

Jane looked up the stairwell. "Marino, do you think you could give me a hand? We have to get him down to Maura."

Nearly five minutes later they were hobbling into the morgue.

"Maura." Jane didn't see her anywhere and her panic grew, churning her stomach in the process. "Maura?"

Maura felt warmth and relief flow through her once she recognized the voice calling her name. "It's Jane." If there was one person in the world who made her feel safe, it was Jane. And now Jane was here, she was alive, she had managed to stay alive. She got up fast and sped into the morgue. "Jane, I was hiding. There were men…" She closed the morgue door. "There were men shooting in here."

Jane felt relief surge through her and the tension in her gut ease just a little at Maura's presence. "Yeah, both of them have been shot."

Maura went for Marino as he was the closest to her, but he shook his head. "I'm fine, I'm fine." He pointed to Frankie. "Take care of him."

Seeing the weakened state of Jane's younger brother scared Maura. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"He's been hit twice." Jane looked between her and Frankie.

"No, it's alright, my vest stopped it."

"Alright, get him up here." Maura knew she'd have to inspect under the vest to be sure if there was any damage or if the vest really had protected him from a normally fatal blow.

"The table, already? Really? The dead person table?"

Jane whispered to him to shut up and she helped heft him onto the cold metal table as Maura covered the face of Danny Clark on the next table over with a sheet. Frankie melted in pain as his muscles strained with the effort of lifting his weight up onto the low table.

Jane looked at Marino and indicated the gun he held. "Keep this and watch the doors; I'm gonna stay with Frankie."

Marino nodded and headed to keep an eye out.

Maura looked at Jane. "Take his shirt off."

They each helped him out of a sleeve as Maura's panic returned.

"Jane what is going on? The phones don't work, there were men shooting here."

Jane didn't need to be reminded of the danger they were all still in. "I know, I know. I think we're trapped in here." She set the portable radio she was still holding down.

Maura nodded toward it. "What about that?"

"No. It's only for homicide cops and no one's in range."

They finally got Frankie's vest off.

"Lift his shirt up." Maura went to grab her stethoscope.

"I think I just got the wind knocked out of me, is all." Frankie tried to reassure Jane as he helped her lift his undershirt off.

There were two brown spot surrounded by circles of white and the area beyond that was a mess of purples, blues, greens, yellows, and browns. It looked like a colorful smoke cloud with eyes, staring out at Jane accusingly.

"You sure did." Jane looked up into Frankie's eyes and it was hard for her to keep the fear out of them.

"Hand us that binder, the binder on the desk." Maura pointed and Marino complied. "We need to keep his head up."

Marino tossed the binder on the only other empty autopsy table and Jane grabbed it, setting it down for Frankie to lay back and rest his head.

"Careful okay? We're gonna put you down." Frankie nodded and Maura and Jane lowered him back onto the table as he groaned with each movement.

"Okay." Maura put the ear pieces of the stethoscope into her ears. "ABCs. Airway, Breathing, Circulation. I should have taken an emergency medical rotation. Take a deep breath."

Frankie struggled to inhale deeply as Maura moved the stethoscope around his chest and abdomen. Then worry set in on his face and he looked at Jane in slight panic. "I can't."

Jane looked at Maura. "What are you hearing?"

Maura ignored the question and put slight pressure with her hands to different areas of his abdomen. He winced when she got to his left side. Maura met Jane's eyes and nodded with her head that they should move out of hearing range. Jane gave a slight nod to indicate her understanding.

"Janie." Frankie called her weakly by her childhood nickname and she held up a hand to reassure him she wasn't going far. "Hey, it's fine okay? It's fine."

"It's bad isn't it?" Jane looked at Maura, letting all her fear show now.

Maura wasn't about to sugar coat something this serious, it wasn't her way. "Massive blunt force trauma that's caused internal bleeding; it's worse than bad."

"Oh god." The reality that her brother might not survive this, that they all might not survive this hit home for Jane then. But she was never the type to sit around and do nothing so she returned to her brother's side. Frankie, now settled and unmoving was remaining calm though his chest heaved with the labor of each breath.

"I need an MRI, or a CT Scan, an x-ray machine, something to check his internal injuries."

Then his breathing caught and his words came out in mumbles.

"I was afraid of that." Maura paled.

"What?"

"Tension pneumothorax."

The medical term meant nothing to Jane. "Maura, he's having trouble breathing. Do something."

"I'm a pathologist, not a surgeon, Jane; I could make it worse."

Jane didn't want to hear excuses. She couldn't just stand there and watch her brother suffocate. She ran to the desk that held Maura's medical books.

Maura, not wanting to stand there not helping either grabbed her stethoscope and put it back to Frankie's chest, listening for any sign she might be wrong.

"What is it again? Say it again." Jane frantically flipped through the medical book she had selected.

"Tension pneumothorax. What are you doing?"

Jane ignored her question, flipping through pages until she found what she was looking for. Her finger scanned the paragraph as she read. "Tension pneumothorax results in death if not…if not treated immediately." Her eyes grew wide as she looked up at Maura for the truth. Maura's silence was her confirmation that what she had just read was true. "My god."

"Jane, I'm just guessing. We'd need to confirm it." Maura tried to console her to no avail.

"You don't have time to confirm it! Your guess is better than most doctor's."

"I could be wrong."

Jane went back to the book. "Aggressively manage with needle decompression to chest."

Maura shook her head. "I've never done it."

Jane raced around the table. "Maura, please, get a needle, do it."

Maura looked down at Frankie, gasping for air. She didn't want to be responsible for this man…this man that Jane loved…for his death. Jane would never forgive her. What if she was wrong? She shouldn't go in there blind.

"Do it now!"

Jane's command shook away the last of her doubt. She had to do this, for Jane, because Jane needed her for this. "Alright. Get alcohol, and a cotton ball, and tape."

Jane jumped into action as Maura went to get the needle.

"I got it, I got it." Jane rushed back with her materials just as Maura returned with the needle.

Maura doused a cotton ball in alcohol and rubbed it across the injection site. It would sanitize and numb the top few layers of skin. Jane bit off a stretch of tape as Maura positioned the large needle over Frankie's chest. Her fear was great but her hesitation was brief and she slid the needle into home, silently hoping that she hadn't just killed Jane's little brother. She pulled the back of the syringe out allowing a steady flow of air to escape from the man's chest. She taped the tube in place as Frankie began to breath better.

"The integrity of his chest wall's been breached by a broken rib. We gotta get him to a hospital."

Jane looked back at Marino.

"There's at least three men inside this building, maybe more outside."

"What are they carrying?"

"I saw two MP5s."

Jane felt her hope sink and she closed her eyes to hold back the onset of grief. They would stand no chance against submachine guns, not when the only person armed had a sig that was a few rounds down. She looked back at Frankie. He was breathing better and some of his color was returning; they could handle this. "No, he looks better, he looks better."

Maura looked at her. "No not for long. He has a partial tear in one of his lungs, maybe other organs."

"Which, which means what?" Jane grabbed his hand.

"It means he needs surgery."

"How soon?"

"Now!"

"It's okay buddy, we'll get ya outta here." Jane patted Frankie's hand as Maura removed the syringe she'd used to release the air in his chest.

"There's blood clotting it." Maura examined the tip of the needle.

Almost instantly, Frankie coughed and a fountain of maroon liquid gurgled from between his lips.

"Oh, turn him on his side."

"What's happening?" Jane complied with Maura's order.

The sound of gun fire filled the room and the girls inadvertently ducked.

"It's okay, it's at least two floors away." Marino assured them from his post by the door.

"His lung is filling up with blood."

"Well how do we stop it?" Jane hated feeling so helpless, but she knew nothing now, here, in this situation.

"We can't." Maura met Jane's eyes. "We need a trauma center. I don't have equipment for this."

"But you helped him before."

"The problem is in his heart right now Jane. There's too much pressure from the bleeding; his heart can't pump."

Jane knew this was what utter helplessness felt like and she hated it. "Please don't let him die Maura, please."

More gun fire sounded, closer to home this time. Their luck was starting to run out.


	5. Pain

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: the chapter you've all been waiting for. enjoy and review

-/-

"We can't get him out of here okay? What can you do, right now, that will help him?"

"I don't know what more I can do with what I have!" Maura looked into Jane's desperate gaze and she felt her world crumbling around her, but she had to hold up the walls, for Jane. This wasn't her time to break down; Jane needed her.

"He is going to die, right here, on this table if you don't do something. Think!"

"Okay." Maura squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus.

"You're the only one that can save him."

She glanced down into Jane's eyes and saw an incredible belief in her abilities there. She nodded and went to gather supplies while Jane reassured Frankie.

A minute later she was all set up. "This is a hospital procedure." She had isolated the incision site and used another alcohol saturated cotton ball to swab his skin.

"Just do it."

"I don't have anesthetic."

"It's okay Maura, just do the best you can, okay?" Jane held Frankie's hand but her eyes were on Maura.

Maura looked at Frankie. "This is going to hurt okay? I have to drain the blood from your lungs so you can breath."

Frankie nodded his consent as best he could.

"Maura, hurry." Jane's voice was barely a whisper.

"I need you to hold him down for me."

"Okay." Jane pressed Frankie's shoulders firmly against the table, though he wasn't in much of a condtion to put up a fight.

Maura pressed the scalpel into his skin and he grunted in response. Jane kept whispering her reassurances to him, and herself.

"I have to insert the tube to drain the blood."

Jane nodded. "We trust you."

Maura caught Jane's eyes. "It's painful."

Jane held her eyes for a long moment. Despite her desperation and the harsh way she'd been speaking to the medical examiner, she was grateful for everything Maura was doing to try and save her sibling. She made a promise to herself to properly thank Maura for this, no matter the outcome, if they both lived to escape this building.

"Okay, listen to me, hey, look at me." When Frankie's eyes met hers she leveled with him. "This is gonna hurt. I want you to squeeze my hand, as tight as you can."

"Okay, do it, go."

Maura didn't hesitate to thread the tube into his open incision. Frankie kept his teeth gritted to contain his scream.

"Jane, you hear me? Jane, can you hear me? Do you copy?"

Jane looked up as Maura pointed at the portable radio. Jane rushed over, grabbed it and pressed the talk button. "Korsak, is that you?"

"Jane, where are you?"

"We're in the autopsy room."

Frost came across the line then. "Are you okay?"

"We got at least two dead, two wounded. Marino's got a gun shot wound to the thigh, Frankie took two to the chest. He's hurt real bad."

"Can you hold 'em off Jane?"

Jane looked at Marino for an answer to Frost's question and he sadly shook his head. "Not for long," Jane said sadly into the radio. "They're looking for something."

Then it dawned on Maura. "They, they were looking for something in the evidence lockers. But they didn't find whatever it was."

"You tell me this now?"

"I'm sorry, I kind of had my hands full."

"Jane, did you log in any evidence from the crime scene?" Korsak's voice interrupted them.

"Only the pack of cigarettes, but I haven't logged them in yet. Why? What would they want with Danny's cigarettes?"

"Danny doesn't smoke. His old man died of lung cancer."

"So there's something in the cigarette pack."

Marino stepped away from the door. "Yeah? Like what? Where is it?"

"It's right here." Jane reached for her blazer.

The lead shooter entered then. "Drop it."

He circled around to the other side of the room as Marino dropped his gun. "You, drop the radio." He kept his submachine gun pointed on her.

She stooped to the floor and set the radio on it.

"Give me the cigarettes. You got til I count to three or this cop is dead." He pointed his gun at Frankie. "One. Two." He put the gun to Frankie's side and Maura let out a small scream.

"Alright, alright." She pointed towards her blazer. "They're right there."

He pointed his gun back at her. "Don't you screw with me."

"Just stop. Alright? They're in my jacket, under his head."

The shooter waved with his gun. "Get 'em."

Jane leaned across Maura to reach her blazer pocket. Maura briefly touched her back but then withdrew her hand. Any contact might give this guy cause to shoot either one of them. Jane withdrew the evidence bac and held it out to the man. "Here."

"Give it to Bobby."

Everything clicked for Jane then, every missing piece fell into place. He'd been playing her all along. He'd probably shot himself too, the bastard. Having no other choice, she turned and tossed the pack to the man she had believed to be on their side.

He opened the bag, removed the pack, and removed the hidden camera. So this had all been about covering his own ass. He pocketed the camera and picked up the gun off the floor.

"Danny didn't know you were behind the drug ring. He must have suspected something. That's why he was wearing a wire and carrying a hidden camera."

"He just couldn't stop digging. That was Danny. I wasn't planning on killing him, but when he showed up at that warehouse, he didn't leave me any choice."

"You killed the other witness too, didn't you?"

"What's one less crackwhore, right?

"You son of a bitch." Jane shook her head.

"Nah, I'm not a son of a bitch." He chuckled and an instant later shot his henchman in the chest. "I'm a freakin' hero."

Maura used her foot to press down on the talk button of the radio on the floor.

"Now that I got what I need, I'm just gonna sit tight and wait to be rescued." He grabbed the MP5 and tucked away the handgun. "That is, after I shoot the three of you."

Jane knew this day would come. She'd signed up for this career and she was well aware of the consequence. The only regret she had in this moment was that Maura and Frankie were with her. She was powerless to save them now.

"I wouldn't do that Bobby." Korsak's voice filled the room with warning.

Jane's eyes widened and she looked at Maura and then down at her heeled foot. The woman was brilliant, utterly brilliant.

"Bobby, it's over."

Jane looked at Marino and her hand reached out and slipped over Maura's. Maura felt a sense of calm despite the fact that there was still a man with a machine gun in the room. Shots sounded wildly from above and both women knew that they were coming for them, they were coming to save them.

Marino let the machine gun fall to his side, held there by it's strap around his shoulder and grabbed the handgun out of the waist of his jeans. He walked around the table and looked as if he would reach for Jane, but at the last moment, he grabbed the doctor's arm instead. Jane held on for as long as she could, but he finally ripped Maura free of her grasp and threw his left arm around her neck, grappling her into a chokehold while pointed the gun to her right temple. He dragged her backwards out the morgue door, just as a bang sounded and officers stormed in through the back exit, guns raised.

"He's got Maura!"

Outside, Marino dragged Maura out through the main entrance. He heard the telltale 'hold your fire' and smiled quietly to himself. This was his ticket out of this joint. They'd never shoot their beloved doctor just to get to him.

Maura felt the cold steel pressed to her temple. She wasn't afraid of death. Everyone expires at one moment or another. If it was her time, she wasn't afraid to go. But she was afraid for Jane. Jane was still in there and if she and Frankie didn't make it, she knew Jane would do two things. First she would withdraw into her work, throwing herself at every case as if solving it would somehow make up for her failure to save Maura and Frankie. And second, she would never let anyone in again. Jane was not a very open person as it was, but her walls would be impossible to breach, not that anyone would even dare attempt to knock them down. She didn't want to die now because she knew Jane would die with her, in soul if not in body.

"Come on Bobby. Don't do this. You know how this is likely to go. If you shoot me, it accomplishes nothing except to force those men on that street to shoot one of their own. If you drop your weapon and show remorse now it will reflect positively in your favor."

He scoffed. "This gun to your head is the only thing keeping me alive. I may not be as smart as you doc, but even I got the sense enough to realize that one."

Before Maura could retort, tell him about statistics and the ratio of likeliness that the cops would not fatal wound him if he were to let her go when she heard the voice of the one person she wanted to be nowhere near here at this moment.

"Drop the gun Bobby. It's over."

Maura had to give the dirty cop his due; he managed to maneuver her so she was not only between him and the police on the street, but also so she was between him and Jane.

"Go Jane, get out of here." Maura knew it was a desperate plea, and if she knew Jane as well as she thought she did, Jane was likely to ignore it.

"I'm not leaving you Maura." Jane briefly met her gaze before returning her attention to Marino. "Let her go."

Bobby laughed. "I'll do that, once I'm safe. She's my ticket out of here Rizzoli, you and I both know that."

"Are you kidding me? You think you're going to make it out of here? The second they get a clear shot, you're dead. Do you really think you can make it out of here keeping yourself completely covered? The only chance you have is to let her go."

"Shut up Rizzoli."

Jane kept quiet but she had already planted the seed of paranoia in his brain.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion. Marino pushed Maura away from him and raised the gun directly towards Jane. Maura didn't think, didn't contemplate odds, she just acted. By the time Marino pulled the trigger to shoot Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles had stepped into the line of fire. Two shots rang through the air.

She didn't feel the pain at first. There was just pressure in her chest and she felt as if unseen hands were pushing her backwards. She saw Jane run towards her in her peripherals and she felt her back land against something solid but not hard. Jane clutched her in her arms as they both feel the rest of the way to the ground. She heard a chorus of bangs and the dark form of Bobby Marino fell, lifeless.

"Maura, Maura listen to me. You're going to be fine." Jane's voice was right in her ear but it still sounded miles away. Jane clutched her so hard, one hand held over the holes in her chest, the other wrapped around her waist. "You can't leave me Maura. You hear me? I need you. So you're going to be alright; you have to be alright."

Slowly Jane's voice drifted farther away. _Jane, there's something I need to tell you. I lov…._ Something cut off her thoughts. It was as if a TV screen had appeared before her closed eyelids. Pictures of her and Jane flashed across it as if in fast forward, visions of them together through the years, of work and private life, of a child and family. It was the life she could have, if she weren't about to lose it. The pain came then and for a moment Maura felt life departing from her. She focused every single bit of energy and strength she had left to open her eyes and focus them on Jane.

Jane had tears in her eyes. When she saw Maura's gaze meet hers, she smiled and she pushed a strand of hair from Maura's eyes. "Hey, I knew you wouldn't leave me."

_Never_. And that was the last thought Maura Isles had before the EMTs pulled her from Jane's grasp and world slipped away from her.

-/-

A/N:: Continue? Or end it here? let me know.


	6. Ruined

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine unfortunately

A/N:: okay, so i kinda love this chapter and i hope you all do to. i'm going out of town tomorrow so no more updates this weekend... gonna go get my beach on. just note that this chapter will not tell wether maura lives or dies... it's more of things from jane's perspective.

**WARNING**:: the very end of this chapter contains a violent scene. i don't consider the words to be graphic, but some might and i just want to put that out there to avoid any negative comments.

-/-

When Bobby grabbed Maura there was a wildness in his eyes Jane hadn't seen before. He was a desperate man, and that was the most dangerous kind there was. It's what drove someone to the evils of the world. Desperation. And it leaked from his every pore. He was a cornered animal, unable to escape and too scared to stay and face the consequences of his actions.

Jane kept a fierce hold on Maura's hand. She wouldn't win this tug-o-war but she was hoping to stall just long enough for he team outside to sneak in through the morgue doors. But then she saw Maura's eyes. There was a calm in them that Jane didn't quite understand, but then it hit her like a bullet to the heart. _I'm not sure I could kill for someone I love, but I could die. I would die to save someone I love; I'd die to save you. _The words echoed through her head like a song on repeat.

Jane knew then what was going through Maura's mind. She was sacrificing herself for the greater good. She was going so Frankie and Jane would live. In that instant an overwhelming sense of both love and fear gripped her and she felt Maura's hand slip from her own.

The smoke bomb burst just a second to late and the officers were there then, swinging their guns around, looking for the immediate threat but he was already gone.

"He's got Maura!"

"We have to secure both of you…"

Jane realized then that they weren't going after him.

"Screw this." She took off out the morgue doors even as the officers' orders to halt faded away behind her. In less than a minute she was out the main entrance doors. Bobby was still holding Maura hostage, the gun…her gun to the medical examiner's head. She met Korsak's eyes from the street. There was a warning in them, telling her to stop, but she ignored it. This was Maura; she wasn't about to leave the woman she loved in the arms of a psychopath with a gun.

"Drop the gun Bobby. It's over."

Bobby swiveled towards her. She was hoping her sudden appearance would cause him to slip up but he was trained well and he managed to keep Maura between him and the force on the street. He wasn't going to let this be easy for her.

"Go Jane, get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you Maura." She knew the instant the words left her mouth that she meant it. She would stay here, not matter the outcome. She met Maura's eyes for a moment and was met with the same fierce calm she'd seen before. She tried to mirror that calm. Maura was prepared to die for the ones she loved, and now, so was she. She looked back at Marino. "Let her go."

Bobby chuckled sickeningly, the laugh of a man whose right mind had left him. "I'll do that, once I'm safe. She's my ticket out of here Rizzoli. You and I both know that."

Jane did know that the police on the street would not shoot through Dr. Isles to get to Bobby, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "Are you kidding me? You think you're going to make it out of here? The second they get a clear shot, you're dead. Do you really think you can make it out of here keeping yourself completely covered? The only chance you have is to let her go."

"Shut up Rizzoli."

That was it. She knew he would break then and in less than a minute he did. He pushed Maura away from him and lifted his gun, aiming it towards her. She had expected to feel fear in the last moment of her life, but she felt relief instead. Maura was safe. She would live. That realization gave Jane great sense of clarity. She was okay going like this.

The shots rang out and she saw a flash of movement and then Maura's body was five feet in front of her being forced back by the speed of the bullets plunged into her chest. Jane didn't think, just ran forward. She caught Maura as she was falling and the momentum brought them both to the ground. The medical examiner was lying back against her, her breathing already shallow and her face turning pale. She held a hand over both bullet holes, they were inches apart and held her close with the other. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It was supposed to be her.

"Maura, Maura listen to me. You're going to be fine. You can't leave me Maura. You hear me? I need you. So you're going to be alright; you have to be alright."

Slowly Maura's body became less rigid, she relaxed and her eyes closed. Jane felt the stinging of her tears long before the started to pour. She buried her face in Maura's hair wanting to scream but feeling no sound in her throat. She loved this woman; she was _in love_ with this woman and she had never been able to tell her. It all seemed so stupid now, the fear of rejection. And now she'd never have the chance.

But… she felt Maura's muscles tense. She lifted her head and looked down to see Maura open her eyes. The blonde's gaze seemed to call her name. She smiled and pushed a loose strand of Maura's hair behind her ear. "Hey, I knew you wouldn't leave me." For a moment Jane believed she was going to get her second chance and she knew she wouldn't waste any more time with Maura.

And then the moment was gone. Maura's eyes fell closed and the life drained from her body.

"Maura! Maura wake up! Baby, please wake up…Maura, wake up."

The gloved hands of an EMT pulled Maura from her arms while another one bent next to her and inquired if she was okay. She didn't pay attention, just stood. Her mind focused on two things… deep sorrow and a hatred so intense it consumed her. She pushed past the EMT, who was still asking her if she was alright, and stalked over to Marino's lifeless body. She reached down and scooped up her gun in one swift motion, aimed, and released two shots into his face. The first blew off half his jaw leaving his tongue and the remains of his shattered teeth visible. The second hit him right between the eyes, splitting his nose down the center. _That's for my brother_. She let loose a shot to his groin. Blood gurgled from the gaping hole and spread down his thighs. _That's for me_. Finally she let loose a bullet straight into his chest, piercing a heart that had already finished beating. _And that's for her_.

"Jane, put the gun down." She heard Korsak's voice behind her.

She didn't need anymore prompting. She tossed the gun onto the ruined body in front of her and walked away.


	7. Three Weeks

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: wasn't supposed to but i snuck my laptop with me. this is a short update but i didn't have much time. new update on monday when i get home, maybe tuesday if we get back late. as always, enjoy and review.

-/-

Jane fidgeted in her seat. She was antsy, wired. She had been since the shooting two days before. There was a part of her that was jumping at the slightest sound or movement, and it was worse being back here in the building where it all happened.

"Jane…" It wasn't like Cavanaugh to call her by her first name and she instantly knew this wasn't good. "I know that no one here really can understand what you went through that day; it must have been… difficult." There was a hurt in Cavanaugh's voice that conveyed all the guilt he felt. 10 people died that day, 4 of which were cops and everyone in the precinct seemed to feel responsible in one way or another. "I think you should take some time off."

Jane paled. "You're suspending me." She had known this was coming but she still felt like it was a painful blow.

"Think of it as a mandatory vacation."

Jane laughed dryly, mandatory vacation her ass. "It's because I shot the bastard isn't it."

"You know very well every shot you fire has to be investigated."

"As I recall IA questioned every cop around and they all said they didn't see nothing. Including you sir."

Cavanaugh frowned. It was no lie that they all had left out that little detail when recalling that days events to internal affairs. They protected there own. "Listen Rizzoli, not one man out there blamed you for what you did. God knows nearly all of us wanted to do it ourselves, but it doesn't change that all shots fired from your gun have to be accounted for." Cavanaugh ran a hand over his tired face. "Besides, you need a break. We all do."

"I need to work." Jane knew she was pressing her luck but she needed something to keep her mind occupied, something to do. If she didn't have hunting down criminals to divert her attention she was scared her mind would dwell where it had been the past two days… death and dying.

"This isn't negotiable Rizzoli. Three weeks. After that you'll come back, we'll have you evaluated to make sure everything checks out and you'll be back here doing what you do best."

Jane left Cavanaugh's office in a huff. She didn't want to go home to an empty apartment with nothing to look forward to except walking Joe Friday and watching reruns of 80's sitcoms, or worse, soap operas.

She started packing up the measly contents of her desk into a boring cardboard box when Korsak and Frost walked in, morning coffees in hand.

Frost was sadly silent as he noticed Jane packing up her belongings. Korsak was enraged.

"They're giving you the boot? After all that's happened to you?"

Jane smiled, happy someone was defending her. "It's okay Korsak; it's just a three week suspension while they sort out the details. I'll be back." Even as she said it, she wasn't sure she believed it. Maybe this place was too much for her… she'd lost so much because of this place, this job. The connection she'd felt had been severed abruptly the second bullets from her own gun, bullets she had loaded, had pierced her best friend's chest. Even if she hadn't pulled the trigger, part of her still felt as if she had shot Maura.

Korsak opened his mouth to protest more, but she held up a hand to cut him off. "It's okay."

She starting tossing the contents of her bottom desk drawer into the box. Towards the bottom tucked between two random files were several photographs of her and Maura. She paused, sitting down in her chair and running a finger delicately along the captured image of the medical examiner's face on the topmost photo. Maura was smiling then, something she was no longer capable of. Jane's eyes lingered, studying the photos for several minutes before she finally tossed them in the box as if they meant little to her, when in reality, they meant the world.

"Jane…" Frost started but she cut him off too.

"No. We don't get to talk about her as if she's not here." Jane tossed the last of her belongings into the box and closed the drawer.

"She's not here Jane." Korsak tried to reach out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder but she slid out of his reach as if his touch would burn her. She grabbed the box and made for the door.

"Is the funeral still Saturday?" Korsak called after her, causing her to stop dead in her tracks.

A solitary tear slid down her cheek. "Yeah, Saturday."


	8. Being Selfish

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: sorry this took an extra day to post. in my defense it was ready to post yesterday but my laptop was not being awesome and kicking me off the internet. i just want to say a quick thank you for reviewing, it's always an awesome feeling to get feedback. so, as always, enjoy and review

-/-

It wasn't cold but Jane pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders. She closed her eyes against her heartbreak. She'd seen death many times before, she was a homicide detective after all. She'd even been to her fair share of funerals. It came with the territory and she'd even admitted to being used to it many times when she was trying to ease her mother's fears. Death was imminent, something that could be put off but never escaped. That was something Maura had taught her. Everyone expires, such is the unfortunate truth of living. And yet knowing that still never prepares you to bury someone you love.

A hand on her shoulder made Jane nearly jump out of her skin. She turned to see Frost standing uneasily behind her, a little stricken at her reaction. She thought about yelling at him for sneaking up on her, but it wasn't worth it, not today. She just turned her back to him, not really in the mood for a friend right now… at least not this particular friend. She only wanted one friend right now, and that was Maura. And as that thought went through her mind, she felt the grief breaking over her again.

She sucked in a deep breath, willing herself not to breakdown in front of her partner. The last thing she wanted was his pity.

"Your mother's worried about you."

Jane rolled her eyes. Of course her mother was worried. That was all Angela Rizzoli seemed to be capable of: worrying and nagging. "Figures."

"You disappeared after the funeral."

Jane wasn't in the mood for talking but Frost seemed to be oblivious to that fact. "I needed time to think. I still do. My mother just wants to find something wrong, something broken, so she can feel like she's fixing it. But you can't fix this; you can't fix death. I'm not going to let her fret over me just to validate her or alleviate any guilt she may be feeling."

Frost was silent for so long Jane thought he might have left but a sigh told her she was incorrect.

"You're being selfish Jane."

That stopped her cold. Frost was not known for standing up to her, but rather the opposite. It was unlike him to be so blunt with her.

She turned to face him, finally intrigued enough to engage in the conversation. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

She expected Frost to pale at the warning tone in her voice, but for the first time he held his ground. "You aren't the only one who lost someone Jane. Maura, Frankie, every officer who got shot that day is a part of each one of our lives. They had families… mothers, fathers, wives, children, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, friends… they all had a life beyond their job, a life they left that morning thinking it was going to be a boring day at the office. They kissed their kids goodbye and promised they'd be home for dinner. They never said a proper goodbye. They thought they'd see them later. Danny Clark thought he'd see his wife and kids again. No one is ever prepared to lose someone Jane. You're not the only person on Earth who has had to watch someone you love be put in the ground."

Jane was taken aback. Frost had just verbally bitch slapped her, and done it in the most calm way a person could. He wasn't angry or upset, just sad and honest. She opened and closed her mouth twice before she relented. She wondered then if Frost had lost someone he loved at a younger age, a time before she knew him. For a man who'd proven to be rather squeamish around homicide victims, he seemed oddly okay with everything that had happened since that day.

"It's never going to be okay that he's gone Jane. But there are people still here, and you can't just push them aside because you think this pain is yours alone. Your mother, your father, and every single one of us who wears the badge lost him too. We all buried a brother today."

She looked back over her shoulder at the dirt covered hole with a temporary marker that stated, simply and impersonally, Rizzoli. The head stone would arrive in less than a week. Without it, she couldn't help feel that it wasn't her brother's resting place.

"You should go see your mom."

Jane nodded. "I will. Tomorrow."

"Jane…"

"No." She cut him off. "This has been the second worst day of my life. My mother has family and friends there with her, she will be fine without me today. I have somewhere to be."

-/-

She heard the beeping of the machines, the soft whir of decompressing air, the sounds of assisted life before she even got through the door. Maura was laying in the same way she had been yesterday, squashing all Jane's hope that she might have woken up since the last time the detective was there. She looked frozen in time, perfectly preserved except for the tube taped into place in her mouth, breathing for her. The evidence of the damage she'd suffered during the showdown at headquarters was not visible. Marino's first bullet had missed causing any severe damage by mere centimeters. It seemed as if fate had been in play, giving the bullet the only possible clear path given it's trajectory. But it was the second that had hit home. It had hit her right lung, taking out an artery in the process. The bleeding had been severe and unstoppable for several minutes. She'd coded three times on the way in.

But by some miracle, she had survived. Most people would view a comatose state as a bad sign, but Jane refused to even entertain the possibility that Maura wouldn't wake. It wasn't a matter of if for her, but of when. So she had all but taken up residence in the uncomfortable and hideous mint green hospital chair next to the medical examiner's bedside. The first few days the nurses, Becky and Dawn, had tried to confine her to the restriction of visiting hours, but after many angry words and the flashing of her badge, she had finally convinced them to give up.

"Hey you. How's my girl today?" Jane tried to smile, failing only slightly, and put the back of her hand to Maura's cheek. The blonde didn't flinch or otherwise acknowledge the touch.

Jane sat down and stared at her quietly for a long time.

"I buried Frankie today."

Still nothing. She felt the first tear roll down her cheek less than a minute later. The emotion she'd bottle up all day spilled over and she let her tears come down like rain. She'd never been the type to cry in front of people if she could help it, but she had lost her control and a small part of her even hoped her tears would somehow convince the friend in Maura to spring up and console her. But Maura stayed still as death, a mmachine pushing air into and pulling it back out of her lungs. And for the first time since that day, Jane Rizzoli thought Maura Isles might not make it.


	9. In There Somewhere

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: another short chapter, i know, but the next one should be longer. i just didn't want to jump into the crime scene until chapter 10. enjoy and review, as always.

-/-

Two weeks came and went without much news. It dragged by for Jane. She spent her workless days at the hospital, with Maura. It had become routine for Jane to spend all day and most nights there. If it wasn't for Joe Friday and the constant calls from her mother, she was sure she'd never leave. Home was painful, both the word and the actual place. She couldn't spend any time with her parents, she avoided the Dirty Robber, and any calls she got from Korsak or Frost, she kept them brief. She preferred to shut herself away in the safety of the ugly hospital chair by Maura's bed. She talked to the medical examiner, oddly enough she never found herself at a loss for what to say, despite the fact that so little filled her days. But there was no change, not a flicker of life. The machines produced the same read outs day after day and Jane knew time was running out. They couldn't keep Maura alive forever, especially if she wasn't going to wake up.

But, just when Jane had braced herself for the awful reality that Maura probably had been gone since that day, Maura gave her a sign that she wasn't gone just yet.

"Becky tried calling you last night!" Dawn, Maura's day nurse, cut Jane off on her way to Maura's room.

Jane paled. "She didn't…" She couldn't even bear to say the words.

Dawn, realizing her train of thought, shook her head. "Oh my god, no, that's not it at all. She's fine." Dawn, a young girl, barely out of college, smiled. "She showed heightened brain activity."

Jane pushed past the young nurse and nearly ran to Maura's room. In reality, Jane knew she wouldn't find Maura awake but a part of her stomach still sank when she saw the same sight she was met with every morning. Externally, Maura was the same.

Dawn came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's a good sign. She is in there somewhere."

-/-

She entered her apartment and set the deadbolt, stretching. Work had been brutal, running back and forth this way and that. Just another day at the office she supposed, well, minus the office. On any other day she would have gone out to breakfast at Maxine's. It wasn't the best breakfast around, but it was the only one open this early that was within walking distance. But her shift had been too strenuous. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and nap, and maybe take a hot bath once she woke up.

A knock sounded and she jumped. Who would be here at this hour of the morning? She crossed back over to the door and looked through the peep hole. Seeing a familiar face she felt relief sweep through her. She pushed aside the deadbolt and opened the door.

"Hey, my car broke down on my way home. Do you think I could use your phone?"

She looked into pleading eyes and nodded. "Sure, it's right through here." She turned and led the way to the kitchen.

She wasn't prepared for what happened next, wasn't prepared for the hand that wrapped around her right arm or the feeling of cold metal against her throat. She hadn't been prepared to die today, to be murdered. And as she fell silently to the ground, she couldn't help but think she should have gone to Maxine's after all.

-/-

"How's she doing?"

Jane looked up at a very pretty, but unfamiliar face. The woman, a brunette in her early thirties, wore the scrubs of a nurse.

"Where's Becky?"

The woman raised an eyebrow in confusion and then realization dawned on her face. "Nurse Lapp. She called out today. I'll be taking her shift. I'm Nurse Pringle."

Jane gave her a half smile. "We're on a first name basis here. I'm Jane. This is Maura. And you are…"

"Samantha."

Jane nodded and then turned her attention back to Maura. "She's still showing signs of elevated brain activity, but no external change."

Samantha nodded and made some notes on her chart. She went around and checked readouts and made sure everything was in working order.

"Don't you have someone to go home to Detective Riz… Jane?" Samantha wasn't saying it as if she wanted Jane gone, but rather out of mild curiosity.

Jane glanced at the nurse and then back at Maura. "She's who I go home to." She regretted it instantly. She hadn't meant to say it, despite its truthfulness.

Samantha seemed fascinated by this little factoid. "You and her…"

Jane cut her off. "No. We're just best friends. I'm single."

"Just haven't found that special someone huh?" Samantha seemed a little upset asking her.

"Opposite actually. I found 'em, but they don't want me."

Samantha seemed about to inquire further but a buzz on Jane's hip distracted them both. She looked down at her phone and instantly recognized the one number she didn't expect to see.

"I gotta take this."

Samantha nodded and Jane exited the room before taking the call.

"Rizzoli."


	10. JANE

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: so jane's got a new case on her hands and it seems personal.

-/-

"What have we got?" Jane felt a surge of comfort rush through her body when she uttered the familiar phrase. It felt good to be back.

"The vic is female. Blonde. Looks to be about mid-thirties." A uniformed officer rumbled off details as he lifted the crime scene tape across the apartment door for her to swing under.

Korsak and Frost were inside talking to a young asian man.

"Is that the vic's boyfriend? He seems a little young." Jane pointed out the man talking to her ex and current partners.

The officer raised his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "That's Dr. Kim, the new medical examiner."

Jane paled. Logically, of course, she knew necessity would require a temporary medical examiner to fill Maura's place but actually having one stung more than she expected it would. Things were really different now.

"Jane."

She looked up to see Korsak waving her over. Reluctantly, she made her way over to the trio of men.

"Dr. Lucas Kim, meet Detective Jane Rizzoli. Jane, this is Luke."

_Luke? What was he, there buddy now?_ Jane shook the hand the young man stuck out to her as he greeted her with a quick, "detective". He was tall and muscular, fairly good-looking, though his stature hinted that he had previously been of the lanky nerd variety. Jane instantly disliked the way he studied her, analyzing her every breath. She wasn't a specimen to study and he wasn't even trying to hide his gaze. He was temporary and she hated that Korsak implied it any other way. He needed no nickname, no familiarity with their little clique.

"The vic's name is…"

"Rebecca Dalton." Jane finished for him as her eyes caught sight of Maura's nurse on the floor. Her throat was ruined, sliced open from ear to ear, the wound shallow but still deep enough to be fatal. Other than that the only visible sign of damage was a bruise on her right arm, just above her elbow.

"Friend of yours?" Dr. Kim turned to her.

"No. Maura's. Well not a friend. It is her… was her overnight nurse. She was there yesterday and when she didn't show up for her shift this evening I was told she had called out sick."

Lucas shook his head. "I don't think that's possible. Time of death is sometime between 3 and 6 this morning. It would have been right after she got off work."

Jane frowned. "You don't think the perp called out for her, do you?"

Frost shook his head. "Doesn't exactly sound like something a murderer would do."

Jane moved back over to the front door and examined it. It showed no damage. "There's no sign of forced entry. She knew her attacker."

Korsak nodded. "That's what we suspect. Neighbor next door said he heard someone knocking sometime around four, woke him up. He said he heard the door open and close and then nothing until it opened and closed again less than ten minutes later. He thought it might be a friend or something, didn't even bother to look out the peephole and get a good look."

Jane made a mental note to question the witness herself.

"Any relatives, spouse, anything?"

Frost answered this time. "Parents are both dead, cancer. Only child. She doesn't have a wedding ring or any other signs that she's married and the building manager says she lived alone. However, our neighbor friend next door says she constantly had friends over when she wasn't at work."

"Get as many descriptions of these friends as you can from him. I'm going to…"

"Detective Rizzoli." Lucas Kim interrupted her.

She stopped, annoyed, and looked at him.

Dr. Kim was pulling down the left shoulder of Rebecca's scrub top. There, scratched out in crude letters across her heart, were the letters J-A-N-E.

-/-

Being back in the bullpen would normally bring Jane relief after so long away, but she felt a foreignness that she hadn't expected. There was a killer out there, a killer trying to send her a message. Her first thoughts had been of Hoyt, but this was not his MO and he wasn't the type to have his 'apprentices' carve her name into his victims. No, this wasn't him.

"Detective Rizzoli."

Jane looked up and groaned inwardly. Before her desk stood Detective Veronica Hepburn, the supermodel look alike head of the internal affairs team investigating the shooting at headquarters.

"Veronica."

"I heard someone left a note for you at today's crime scene."

"Heard about that huh?" Jane had to do everything in her power to hold back the eye roll she felt coming on.

"I'm going to be honest with you Detective…"

"You always are." Jane interrupted her.

Hepburn bit back a retort and continued with her previous thought. "I don't think you should be working here at all, let alone on this case."

Jane chuckled. "Thanks. I'll take that under advisement."

"You better keep every toe in line Rizzoli, because I'm watching your every move." Veronica bent over her desk, bringing her face so close to Jane's that she could smell the woman's high end perfume. "Cavanaugh stuck his head out to get you on this case. You blow this and I'll take you both down."

She didn't give Jane time to respond, but straightened up, turned, and stormed out, her heels clicking a furious beat all the way out the door.

It was near six in the morning and her thoughts drifted to her bed. But fantasies of counting sheep soon dissolved as her phone vibrated from the corner of her desk it had taken residence on. Seeing the number for the hospital she flipped it open, fully alert.

"Rizzoli."

"Jane? This is Dawn."

Jane's chest tightened in fear. "Is Maura okay?"

She could almost hear the smile on the other end of the line. "It's good news."


	11. Kleenex Wake Up Call

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: sorry this took more than my usual one day to post, a friend of mine died saturday night. but josie and i met in writing class, so she would have wanted me to keep writing no matter how upset i may be. so this one's for you josie. all maura and jane this chapter. enjoy and review!

Josefina Naomi Serrano

November 19, 1990-October 2, 2010

-/-

Tears had been threatening to spill from the corner of Jane's eyes the whole drive to the hospital. They had been able to successfully extubate Maura. She was breathing on her own. The next step was waking up. She had been warned that coming down to the hospital wasn't necessary; they'd call when Maura woke up. But Jane wanted to be there to see it so, like always, she disregarded the wishes of hospital personnel and headed straight for her car, Becky's case file tucked under her arm so she could study it while she waited for Maura to wake.

The hospital was deserted this hour of night, but the few nurses and one doctor she saw didn't question her purpose. Everyone knew about Maura being there and even if they didn't, the bright gleaming badge on her hip would caution them against trying to stop her.

Maura's room was dark, but even in the gloom she could see the empty air above Maura's mouth that the tube used to occupy. Her chest rose and fell on it's own and for the first time since she'd gotten there, the statement that Maura looked as if she were only sleeping was the truth. She was only sleeping now.

Jane parked herself in her usual spot and just watched the medical examiner breath for nearly an hour. It soothed her in a way that nothing had since that day. She'd lost her brother, but Maura had been spared. It would be hard living without him, but she took comfort knowing that if ever she were about to break, Maura would be here to piece her back together again, just like she always did.

She wasn't aware of when she fell asleep, only when she was woken up. Something smacked her head, hard. She woke with a start and clutched the already aching part of her head. "Ow." She glanced down at the ground and saw the culprit. A nearly full box of tissues was lying on the floor at her feet. "What in the hell?"

"I told you I would throw it at you if you continued to refuse to wake up."

"How could I refuse? I was asleep!" Jane's first reaction was always to defend and it took her brain a moment to realize that Maura was talking to her. Maura. She was awake.

Jane's eyes widened with the realization and the tears came then.

Maura frowned with concern. "Did it really hurt that badly? I'm sorry Jane."

Jane shook her head, the tears still sliding down her cheeks. Maura was awake. Maura was alive. "You lived." She managed to choke out the two words without letting any audible sobs escape.

Maura shifted slightly. Her face pinched in silent effort and then finally her muscles relaxed and she sighed. She held open her arms. "You'll have to come to me."

Jane slowly pushed herself up from the chair and slid easily onto the bed and into Maura's arms. Once there, she buried her face against Maura's shoulder and let it all go. Her body shook with the force of her crying. How ironic it was that Maura had woke up after nearly a month long coma and she was consoling Jane. She ran her fingers through Jane's dark locks and let her cry, though she still had little idea as to why the detective was so upset.

Finally Jane pulled away, from her shoulder and her arms, though she stayed on the bed, sitting with her back against the hard unforgiving headboard.

"Has somebody been taking care of Bass?"

Jane couldn't help it; the question made her laugh and helped to alleviate some of her sadness. "Your turtle is being taken care of."

"Tortoise."

Jane smiled. She had nearly forgotten how much she missed this. "Ma loves having something to take care of."

"You left Bass in the custody of your mother?"

Jane nodded. "Joe Friday too."

"You've been spending a lot of time here."

It was a statement of fact, not a question but still Jane felt a need to confirm it. "Everyday."

"But work…"

Jane held up a hand. "I was suspended until very recently. It gave me a lot of available time and seeing as you were otherwise occupied, I decided to keep you company."

Maura nodded. "It is a rather common reaction to suspend an individual over psychological stress…"

Again Jane interrupted her. "I was not under any psychological stress; I shot a murderer."

Maura's brow furrowed.

Jane frowned. "I shot Bobby Marino after he was already dead."

Maura didn't ask why, an action, or lack thereof, that astounded Jane. It wasn't like Maura not to have an opinion, especially on matters such as this.

"You're quiet." Jane felt she had to break the silence after nearly ten minutes of no speech.

"I'm thinking."

"About."

"Frankie didn't survive."

Jane felt her insides twist painfully. "What makes you think that?"

Maura shrugged. "I spent the last minutes before I was shot working to save him. You would have mentioned him by now, whether for the purpose of merely informing me or to validate that my efforts were not in vain."

"You did the best you could with what you had Maura."

"I know."

Jane smiled, loving the familiarity of the situation. "Your modesty astounds me."

Maura grabbed Jane's hand and the dark haired woman tightened her grip.

"I could have lost you too."

Maura nodded; she wasn't oblivious to the venom in Jane's tone. "We all die a little each day Jane. Death does not separate us from any other individual. But the way we go and what we do while we're here is what differentiates us… along with DNA and an infinite amount of possible different combinations of personality traits and physical characteristics."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Thank you for the philosophy lesson. Glad to see you still speak googlese."

"I'd say I missed your witty comebacks and playful banter, however, my comatose state resulted in time moving forward while I remained unaware."

Jane looked away. She'd been aware of Maura's absence every minute.

"Jane…"

"Hmm?" Jane looked down at their still-clasped hands.

"There's something I need to tell…"

The buzz of Jane's phone cut her off.

Jane held up a finger. "Hold that thought." She grabbed her phone. "Rizzoli."

"Jane." Korsak's voice sounded concerned. "There's something I think you should see."


	12. Break In

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: thanks to everyone for their condolences; it's greatly appreciated and makes me feel a tad better. this is a shorter one, i know, but i've been super swamped at work, which is where i usually use my extra time to write. next chapter tomorrow or friday. enjoy and review!

-/-

Jane was already halfway to headquarters, where Korsak asked her to meet him, when she got another call. He asked her to meet him at her apartment. It was an odd request but he didn't give her a chance to inquire why there had been a change of plans.

There were cruisers outside her apartment building when she pulled up. Instantly alarms went off in her head. Something had happened here. Fear gripped her and memories of the incident at headquarters filled her mind.

She jumped out of her car and met Korsak at the entrance to the building.

"What happened?"

"Someone broke into your apartment."

"What?" Jane tried to push past him into the building but he held her back.

"I need to get in there and see if anything's missing."

"Nothing was missing, the perp was looking for something that he or she obviously didn't find."

Jane calmed down a little. "Is this related to the case?"

"There's no way to know for sure, but my gut tells me there's no way this is a coincidence."

"Well let's see it."

Korsak nodded and led the way up through the building to the open front door of her little apartment. Frost was inside.

"The uniforms got the call in from one of your neighbors about an hour ago. Once they realized whose apartment it was, they called us. Nothing seems to be missing, but you might want to check for yourself, just to make sure." Frost handed her a pair of gloves, not that her fingerprints weren't already all over the place.

She nodded and spent the next half hour going from room to room in her small apartment. For once, she was glad she lived alone and that work was her constant companion. She had a minimal amount of personal possessions as a whole and even less that couldn't be replaced. Once she realized everything was still here, though hardly where it should be, she returned to the kitchen and the boys.

"You're right. The perp didn't take anything, but he looked everywhere. I don't know what I could have that he could possibly want."

"It could have been a distraction. If this is the same guy who killed Rebecca Dalton, it could simply be a scare tactic."

Jane frowned and rolled the theory around in her head for a couple moments. "I think you're right. It seems personal, but I don't think I'm the target, at least not for any physical harm. If someone had broken in to hurt me, they would have just left once they saw I wasn't home. If their purpose was to rob me, and it really was random, why is none of my stuff missing. I know I don't have many things of value, but it seems a waste to risk breaking in and taking nothing."

Frost's phone rang on his hip. He glanced at it. "It's Luke." he stepped out of the kitchen to take the call.

"Is this what you called me for?" Jane ran a hand through her hair and sighed in frustration.

"No, actually, I called you because we found something when we searched our vic's place. It seems like Miss Dalton was in a relationship after all."

"Did her boyfriend show up mid-search?" Jane, though she now understood more than ever the reasons behind it, disliked having her work interrupted by emotional relatives.

"Not exactly." Korsak shifted uncomfortably.

"Well?" Jane motioned for him to elaborate.

Korsak cleared his throat and handed her the file he'd been holding.

She opened the file. Inside were dozens of photographs of Rebecca Dalton with various people. Some family, some friends. It wasn't until Jane neared the bottom of the stack that she saw what Korsak had been referring to. The photos at the bottom of the stack depicted two people she knew all too well. One was the victim, Rebecca Dalton, and the other was…

"They're in a relationship?" She flipped to the last photo, one of as heated liplock and nodded. "Well I guess that answers my question."

"We're calling the family, asking if they can come up with an identification, but so far the family's oblivious."

"Don't bother."

"Don't tell me…" Korsak eyed her warily.

"Her name's Samantha Pringle. She's the replacement nurse who took over Maura's care when Rebecca…"

Frost coming back interrupted her train of thought. "Dr. Kim confirmed the killer is left handed. The cut across the vic's neck was made right to left."

But Jane had stopped paying attention. Her mind had flashed back to the night when she'd met Samantha. She been checking the machines readouts and recording them… with her left hand.

It hit her then. _Maura! This was all a distraction, to get to Maura_. It made perfect sense now. "I have to get back to the hospital!"

-/-

She raced through the hallways, flying around corners and up stairs because the elevators would never be fast enough. Once she hit Maura's floor, she stopped at the nurses' station, out of breath. "Nurse Pringle?"

The nurse behind the desk gave her a look caught somewhere between concern and confusion. "She's in 308."

Jane paled. 308. That was Maura's room. Was she already too late?


	13. Square One

DSICLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: be patient friends. you will soon discover exactly why this perp is targeting jane and those she cares about. all in good time. i make it a point never to leave questions unanswered.

-/-

Samantha Pringle wasn't in Maura's room, but neither was Maura. Every alarm in Jane's mind and body went off. She felt sick to her stomach, disgusted with herself that she had failed to protect the one person who mattered most. Somewhere in the back of her mind a little voice was telling her to have the nurses send out a page to lock down the hospital, search for Samantha and Maura. But she couldn't move. She clutched the door frame to keep from falling to the floor. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. She'd gotten a second chance for a reason; she'd been given another chance so that her and Maura could ride off into the sunset and do the whole happily ever after thing.

"Jane!"

The excitement in the voice that called her name melted her heart. She turned to see Maura down the hall, clutching her portable IV pole in one hand and Samantha's forearm with the other. She was taking shaky and unsure steps, almost like that of a baby learning to walk for the first time. A bright smile spread across her face at the sight of the detective.

Jane raced down the hall, enfolding Maura in her arms.

Maura winced at the impact against the nearly, but not quite, healed spots where the bullets had struck her, but as her body relaxed, so did she.

"You're okay." Jane pulled away a little and it was everything she could do not to cry.

Maura smiled and nodded. "I'm walking. The doctors were afraid of muscle deterioration due to a long period of inactivity."

"She's doing a fine job, much better than I expected."

Jane was snapped out of her warm thoughts of Maura by the sound of Samantha's voice. She had almost forgot why she was here. She helped Maura back to her room, keeping an eye on every move the young nurse made. Once she had Maura settled back into bed, she motioned for Samantha to follow her out of the room.

"I need you to come downtown with me."

Samantha looked genuinely confused. "Why?"

"We need to question you as part of an open investigation."

"Of what?"

Jane frowned. "The murder of Rebecca Dalton."

-/-

"Rebecca and you were romantically involved." Jane slid the photographs of Samantha and Rebecca across the table so the dark haired nurse could see them.

Samantha didn't attempt to deny it. "I moved to Boston a couple years ago. I had been taking care of my mother almost all my life, and I never learned to be social really. It was always go to school and then come home to be with her. After I got out of high school, it seemed right to go to college to become a nurse; it's what I knew. So I went to school and took care of my mom. A month after I graduated, she passed. I had no one, nowhere to go. So I laid a map on the kitchen table, tossed a penny in the air, and told myself that wherever it landed was where I'd go."

"It landed on Boston?" Jane tried to keep her talking.

Samantha nodded. "I packed everything I owned, which wasn't much, into my car and drove here. I got the job at Mass Gen a week later. That's when I met Rebecca. She'd moved here from California when she was twenty five, after a really bad breakup. We just hit off right away. My social awkwardness didn't seem to bother her, she was patient, sweet."

"When did it become physical?"

Samantha traced Rebecca's face on one of the photos. "It didn't take long, about two months after we met. She was never shy about who she was, or when she was attracted to someone."

"Did the two of you ever fight, or have any disagreements?"

"Of course. Every relationship has its struggles. Becca and I constantly went at it over her family. I wanted to meet them and she kept them at arms length. She found every excuse in the book not to go back to California for a visit. But we never fought so badly that we didn't make up before the day was over. At least not until…" Samantha trailed off and closed her eyes, shaking her head as if she were recalling something she wanted to forget.

"Until when?" Jane prodded.

"About a month ago, right after Dr. Isles came into the hospital and got put in her care, Becca started acting weird. She acted differently around me, as if we we're new to the whole relationship thing. Then, one night I was staying over at her place. She was asleep and her phone rang. I answered it because the number was from the hospital. I thought it might have been an emergency at work, but it was a woman. She thought I was Becca and before I could tell her otherwise she said we had to end things. That she still wasn't over her ex-boyfriend. She'd been cheating on me. I confronted Dawn, but she said she couldn't tell me anything."

"Dawn was sleeping with Rebecca?"

Samantha shook her head. "No, Dawn is Rebecca's best friend. They've always told each other everything. I knew she would know who Rebecca had been sleeping with, but she said she wouldn't break her best friend's confidence." She sighed, on the verge of tears. "I broke things off the next day. We've been avoiding each other ever since."

"Where were you yesterday morning?"

"I got off work at 4am. I went to the 24-hour drug store near my apartment to pick up some supplies to tide me over cause I hadn't got a chance to go to the grocery store in nearly two weeks. I got home just after 5."

"Can anyone verify that?" Jane challenged her.

-/-

"She has an iron clad alibi for both the murder and the break in." Jane tossed a photo of Samantha in the drug store in front of Korsak. "The owner of the drug store has a camera behind the counter and another one trained on the inside of the door. Time stamp on the security video shows Samantha Pringle checking out and leaving the store at 4:53. Dr. Kim estimated the time of death to be between 4:45 and 5:05. There's no way Samantha could have made it over to Rebecca's apartment in time. And she had already clocked in for her shift when my apartment was ransacked."

"So we're back to square one."

Jane sighed and ran a hand over her tired face. "I'm going back to the hospital and check up on Maura. Then I'll go pick up Dawn and see if she can't give us a name for Rebecca's mystery woman."


	14. Micah & Olivia

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: i'm in a dark place this week, hence this chapter. on the bright side, at least Maura survives it...

-/-

Maura wasn't alone when Jane walked in.

"Detective Rizzoli. It's so nice to see you here. And in the middle of an investigation too." Veronica Hepburn was perched on the foot of Maura's hospital bed. Her long legs were crossed, her hands clasped in her lap, and there was an aura of arrogance that permeated the area around her.

Jane resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It was just her luck that IA would be here the exact moment she decided to show up. "I'm here following a lead, to bring a friend of the vic in for questioning. I thought I'd check up on Dr. Isles while I was here."

"That's very thoughtful of you." Detective Hepburn sneered, her voice dripping with insincerity, her eyes sharp and dark.

"And what brings you here? Maura's not a detective; she's not under your jurisdiction."

"Oh, but she is. Because she was shot by a detective in an incident I am investigating. Not to mention, she knows an awful lot about you." There was a flash of something in Veronica's eyes that Jane could only associate with pure envy. But it was gone less than an instant later.

Jane gritted her teeth. It was one thing to come after her and make her life a living hell but why involve Maura? There was so much they still had to discuss and she was far from grateful for the intrusion.

"You should go Detective; you have work to do." Veronica smiled at Jane, her eyes daring her.

Jane looked right past her to the medical examiner. "I'll be back later, okay?"

Maura smiled. "I'll be waiting."

Jane tried to hide her surprise at the statement. She waved awkwardly and left the room in search of Dawn. What had Maura's statement meant? Was it merely a statement of fact…it's not like she could go anywhere until she was discharged, so technically she would be waiting, she'd have no choice. But on the other hand, there was a hint of something more, a declaration of emotion, a way of saying 'I'll wait for you' without literally saying it. She was torn between a warmth she'd been trying to suppress since the day she'd met Maura Isles and a fear that she was reading way too far into something that was meant to be simple.

Tracking down Dawn was a lot more difficult than Jane had originally anticipated. She wasn't due to start her shift for several hours and it was up to Jane to either wait it out with Maura (obviously her preferred choice, however Maura was still in the company of Detective Hepburn) or contact Dawn at home. But Dawn wasn't home, or if she was, she didn't answer the phone.

A strong feeling of dread came over Jane then. She wasn't sure and had no evidentiary support that this perp was specifically targeting her, save the name carved in Rebecca Dalton's chest and even that was circumstantial at best. Maybe the killer was after nurses. She asked for a list of all hospital employees with either the first, middle, or last name Jane or some derivative. There were six. She called Frost and Korsak and told them to follow up.

"Divide and conquer. Each of you take half the names and start making calls. See if any have any enemies, the usual."

"What are you going to do Jane?" Frost asked after she had given him the last of the names.

"I'm going to Dawn's place and see if I can't put this bad feeling to rest." She hoped it was really all in her head.

-/-

It wasn't.

After nearly beating hospital personnel convincing them to relinquish her address, it took Jane twenty minutes to get there.

She knocked, but there was no answer. She tried the doorknob; it was unlocked. The foyer was homey, with a pressed Persian rug and a chandelier, evidence of the wealth of the family that occupied the house. She smelled the blood even before she found it. She entered the great room. Dawn wasn't there but the first of the signs of the tragedy that happened in this house. There was no point in checking for a pulse, she knew the man was dead in one glance. There were several shots in his chest, oddly spaced and uncoordinated.

"You weren't supposed to be here. You surprised him." She got on her cell, immediately calling it in.

"This is Detective Rizzoli, requesting backup to 616 Pastana Lane. I got one dead, possibly more."

She moved through the kitchen and the other rooms on the bottom floor, but there was no more evidence of a massacre anywhere else downstairs.

She took the stairs slowly. Even though every bit of her gut told her the bastard who did this was long gone, she still aired on the side of caution. When she reached the second floor landing, she found the second body. A woman, mid-fifties, shot down outside one of the many doors leading off the hallway. Jane walked over to her, checking rooms as she went. The next room beyond the body is where she found Dawn. The young woman had multiple gun shot wounds and her throat was slit. She was a heap blocking an adjoining door.

Jane closed her eyes. Just as with Rebecca Dalton, she'd known this woman; she'd spoken to her, laughed with her. She saw bodies all the time in her line of work, but it never got any easier to see the extent of human brutality, especially when you had known the victim.

She heard sirens in the distance and some of her tension released. Backup was almost here.

But then she saw it. The door to the connecting room was wide open. The floor of the adjoining room was littered with toys. Kids. Dawn had children.

Jane's chest tightened. _Oh God, please no_.

She stepped over Dawn and looked around the room. There was blood. But the room was unoccupied. She spotted the closet right away. She crossed the room to it, making a last minute decision to holster her gun.

She moved cautiously forward, terrified of what awaited her. She reached for the door, opening it slowly.

Crouched inside were two little bodies. Alive. A small dark haired boy, no more than five, looked up at her in fear. He pushed the smaller child, a girl, behind him and stared up at her, even at such a young age, prepared to die to save somebody he loves.

"It's okay. I'm a cop."

The boy still looked at her with distrust. She showed him the badge on her hip. Finally he stood and ran into her legs, hugging them. The small girl mimicked his movements. Jane glanced over her shoulder at the body of these kid's mother. She crouched in front of them.

"What are your names?" She tried to block their eyes from the awful sight behind her, keep them distracted.

"Micah." The boy whispered it.

The toddler just stared at her with wide eyes.

"She's Olivia."

Jane smiled, trying to reassure them. "My name's Jane."

The siren's were on top of them now. They were pulling into the long driveway.

She looked back at the kids. "Can you guys be brave for me?"

The boy slowly nodded, and the girl nodded once she saw her brother in agreement.

"Okay, I need you to be brave and close your eyes. Don't open them until I say so, okay?"

The kid's nodded in agreement again and closed their eyes. She grabbed the boy's hand and scooped up the small girl and led them out the door that led into the hall, the one their mother wasn't blocking.

She was trying to protect them. She was keeping the killer from them, giving them time to hide, to live.

She had just made it to the top of the stairs just as her backup burst through the front door, led by Korsak and Frost. They saw Jane with the kids and she shook her head sadly. They all lowered their weapons, knowing the damage was already done.


	15. The Witch's Curse

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: sorry this took a little longer than normal. work has been a whirlwind and i'm pretty sure i got dumped, so life has been on the more difficult side. updates will continue i promise, just might be three or four days apart rather than one or two. next chapter: maura gets released from the hospital!

-/-

"I think she's dwead." The auburn haired girl poked the body on the bed. She brought her tiny face close to the older woman's, examining her for signs of life.

"She's not dead; she's just sleeping." Her older brother grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off the bed, but she held on.

Jane tried to keep from laughing at the scene. Olivia, or rather Princess Olivia (as, now that she was comfortable with Jane, she insisted on being called), had entertained herself by crawling up onto Maura's hospital bed. Maura was asleep, or at least she appeared to be, though Jane wasn't quite sure anymore.

"You know what I think? Queen Maura has been put in a deep deep sleep by an evil witch named Veronica." Jane leaned down to Olivia's ear. "And I heard only a kiss from a princess can wake her."

Olivia looked up at Jane with a smile. "I'm a pwincess."

Jane acted surprised. "So you are."

Olivia leaned down and pecked Maura square on the forehead. Instantly the medical examiner's eyes fluttered open and she yawned dramatically. Then she smiled. "Thank you, your highness, for lifting that awful curse the witch put on me. I am forever in your debt."

Olivia giggled in delight.

Jane looked up as Korsak and another man entered the doorway. The man cleared his throat, a thousand emotions flowing over his face in a matter of seconds.

"Daddy!" Micah raced over and jumped into his arms as he entered the room. The man hugged him hard, then crossed the room and scooped up Olivia who wordlessly held her arms out to him. She closed her eyes and reveled in the closeness until he set her back down on the bed with Maura.

Korsak leaned in close to Jane. "That's Ryan Hall. He and the vic have been married for seven years."

Jane crouched down so she was at near eye level with the little boy and girl. "I have a special mission for you guys. Do you think you're up for it?"

Both nodded vigorously.

"I need you to protect Queen Maura over there while I go speak to your daddy outside for a second, okay? The witch's curse has weakened her and normally I would protect her myself, but I think you two will do a much better job than I could. Can you watch over her for me?"

Again the kids nodded vigorously.

Jane smiled and lifted Micah onto the bed next to Olivia and his eyes went straight to the door, watching for any intruders that may dare to try and get past him.

Jane, knowing Maura was in good hands, exited the room with their father. Out of the presence of his children, his composure faltered. He was military; he'd driven up from Bethesda as soon as he got the call. She couldn't imagine having to receive that call… to dedicate your life to fighting the enemies beyond these borders and then lose the love of your life to the enemies within them.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I knew your wife; she was a wonderful person."

He nodded, slowly calming back down. "The other detective said the medical examiner had confirmed it was quick, for all of them."

Jane knew that fact, while important, offered little solace at a time like this. "She died protecting them, to give them time to hide."

He smiled through the silent tears streaming down his face. "That was Dawn. Her life was about helping people. She used to find wounded animals when we were young and nurse them back to health. She wanted to be a doctor, but when she got pregnant with Micah, she dropped out of med school and she never went back… being a mom was the most important thing in her life."

"Was she close with Rebecca Dalton?"

"Becky? They were best friends. We moved here from a small town in the Midwest when Dawn got into Harvard. When she dropped out and got a job at the hospital, Becky was the first person she really got to know. And then when I was deployed she really leaned on her for support." He frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Rebecca Dalton was found murdered Tuesday morning in her apartment. We have reason to believe the two crimes might be linked."

He ran a hand over his mouth in disbelief. "Why would somebody kill Becky and Dawn? It doesn't make any sense."

"Was there anybody who was holding a grudge against them for any reason? Anyone they had problems with in the past?"

"Dawn had said something a couple weeks ago about an affair Rebecca had that had gone south. Rebecca had said the woman she had the affair with was still hung up on her ex, obsessed almost, and it scared her."

"Do you know this woman's name?"

He shook his head. "She always kept the details to herself, didn't want to break Becky's trust."

Jane frowned in frustration. This mystery woman was somehow the key to all of this, she was sure of it. Rebecca Dalton had been murdered by someone she knew, or at least a stranger persuasive enough to gain entry to her apartment without force and just when she'd found the only other person who knew the identity of Rebecca's mistress, that person had been murdered as well…maybe to shut her up? She finished up her questioning of the husband with a few brief wrap up questions before she let him back in the room to collect his children.

She and Maura said their farewells and the surviving members of Dawn's family departed.

Jane fell into her usual seat with a sigh.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Jane looked up at Maura, who was staring at her with such genuine concern that she was able to manage a weak smile.

"Maybe not today, but someday soon, he's going to have to explain to those kids that their mother is never coming back. And then someday when their older, he's going to have to explain to them about the evil people in this world. He's going to have to explain a world to them that no kid should have to know about… hell, no adult should have to know about. It makes me almost grateful that Frankie didn't have a family of his own yet."

Maura reached out and grabbed Jane's hand. Jane felt herself relax at that simple meaningless contact and instantly felt sick to her stomach that she was letting herself feel those feelings at a time like this.

"I'm sorry Jane."

Now that one surprised her. She looked up at Maura and raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

Maura was silent for a long time. "I'm sorry that I survived and he didn't."


	16. Answers

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: thanks for all the great reviews! they've gone a long way in improving my week! i'm not generally so good at chapters that are mainly dialouge, but i'm rather proud of this chapter. hope everyone enjoys it too.

-/-

"You don't have to do this. I'm fine."

Maura had been objecting from the moment she'd received her discharge papers. Jane just rolled her eyes for about the seventieth time that day and shook her head. "You are staying with me until I deem you fit enough to be by yourself."

"Well technically, you're staying with me."

"They don't want me staying in my apartment right now." Jane said matter-of-factly as she stuck Maura's key in the door and unlocked it.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Maura walked into the foyer and turned on Jane, trapping the taller woman with her back pressed against the closed door. "First Rebecca's calls out sick multiple days in a row, then your apartment is broken into and finally you spend the morning babysitting Dawn's children until their father can pick them up."

Jane pushed lightly past her and went into the kitchen. She grabbed two glasses and a bottle of wine from Maura's stock. She opened the bottle and poured them both a glass. Maura, who had followed Jane, took the glass the detective offered her.

"Rebecca Dalton was murdered Tuesday morning after her shift at the hospital."

Maura was quiet, though Jane saw the sadness in her eyes. "She let her attacker in, which leads me to believe she knew who murdered her. She was grabbed, her throat slit open from behind. It seems Samantha Pringle and Rebecca were in a relationship until as recently as a month ago. Samantha's alibi checks out but she did inform me that Rebecca had cheated on her with a mystery woman, whose identity was only revealed to Rebecca's best friend."

"Dawn." Maura nodded, the pieces already starting to fall into place.

"I went to Dawn's house to question her. I found her, her mother, and her father all shot to death. Micah and Olivia were hiding in a closet."

"Why kill Rebecca and not only Dawn, but her family too?" Maura sipped her wine, her face scrunched in thought.

"I think Dawn was the only mark. Maybe her parents were in town unexpectedly, an unforeseen complication that the killer hadn't planned on. Rebecca's throat was cut…Dawn's was too, postmortem. It's as if the killer was trying to prove they were connected. He walked in, surprised by the father, forcing him to use a gun. The mother, upstairs, heard the shot and came out of Dawn's room, giving her time to hide the children. Then, in a last attempt to protect the children, Dawn blocks the killer's path. She gets shot too. Then the perp, having got his mark, ignores the kids, slices her throat to connect this murder with Rebecca Dalton's and leaves."

"How does your apartment fit into all this?"

Jane shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't."

"You don't believe that." Maura set down her glass, and then she grabbed Jane's and set that down too. She stepped so close to Jane that the brunette woman's breathing hitched and all she saw were Maura's eyes. She let herself sink into them momentarily. "What aren't you telling me Jane?"

In a swift, and rather sudden, movement Jane swept Maura into a tight hug. "There hasn't been one moment where I haven't felt blessed that you survived."

Maura buried her face in the nape of Jane's neck, willing herself not to cry, not in front of Jane, not now. "I'm sorry I missed the funeral. I would have liked to have been there for you."

Jane pulled away, much to Maura's dismay, though she made no outward show of it. "You were there for me. We talked every day."

Maura picked back up her wineglass and sipped from it. "Dawn told me you spent a lot of time at my bedside."

"I wanted to be there when you woke up." Jane grabbed her own glass and downed it, setting the glass in the sink, bracing her hands on either side, her back to Maura.

"And if I had never woken up?"

Jane felt her stomach heave at the mere thought of Maura not existing. Her legs felt like jell-o and yet somehow she was able to hold herself up. She closed her eyes. "Then I guess I'd be waiting for a long time."

Maura's hand touched her back and she turned, coming face to face with her golden opportunity. She could let it all spill right there, every feeling she'd ever had for the medical examiner.

But instead she bit her lip and held it in.

"Why is the break in at your apartment connected to the murders of two nurses?"

Maura's voice was soft and already full of concern, but Jane knew if she told her the truth, she'd just make it worse. But she knew lying to her was not an option.

"The name Jane was carved into Rebecca Dalton's chest."

Maura nodded and remained calm, though she visibly paled. She turned and headed for the great room. She chuckled half heartedly.

"What's so funny?" Jane followed close behind her.

Maura sat on the couch, already tired from the exertions of the day. "Well surely you must see the irony in the situation. I was shot, so you could live, and now, a mere month later someone else is clearly targeting you. I would speculate that Hoyt was sending another one of his 'apprentices' after you, to intimidate you, but that claim has no evidentiary support. It's not his M.O. to be certain."

The spent the next hour going over the evidence in all three crimes and finding the common threads. They discussed possible suspects, motives, and even a lack of motive until they were exhausted. Somewhere during the conversation they had retired to Maura's room, so she could lie down.

Maura yawned and stretched, exhausted from the discussion. It wasn't easy for her to talk about all the possible reasons someone might want to hurt Jane… there were far too many for her taste.

"I should let you get some sleep." Jane made a move to get up from the bed.

"No." Maura grabbed her hand to stop her. "Stay."

Jane looked down at their fingers, which had somehow naturally entwined themselves together. It was effortless, an action she hadn't even thought about.

"Why did you do it?"

Maura glanced away. "Do what?"

Jane knew by the tone of her voice and the way she was avoiding eye contact that Maura Isles knew exactly what she was referring to. "I was staring at a gun. I barely had time to take one breath before he fired and yet somehow you put yourself between that gun and me. You couldn't have given the decision too much thought."

"There was no reason to think about it. It wasn't a decision to be made. There was no 'should I or shouldn't I', it was simply a matter of 'I must'."

"Why?"

That one question hung in the air, vague and yet completely specific.

Maura was silent for several minutes, so long that Jane believed she wouldn't answer.

But she did.

"I knew if I didn't die, you would. And that's not something I could have lived with. Everybody dies…I know that and I accept that, in my line of work it's not possible to not accept that as the order of things. But you are not everybody…you are Jane, and…you need to exist."

Jane felt that comfortable warmth, that feeling of contentment she felt whenever she imagined Maura and her together. She let her thoughts drift through her many fantasies for a second before she forced herself back down to reality. "And what makes me so special?" She looked away, imagining a million different answers Maura could give.

"Jane."

That stopped Jane's thoughts with such force it felt like a mental kick in the head. She had never heard Maura say her name that softly. Her voice was vulnerable in a way it never had been before.

Jane looked over at Maura. The medical examiner was studying her intently. They locked gazes for a second before Jane felt a tug on her hand. She moved closer until she was sitting right next to Maura. The medical examiner sat up in bed, her face less than a foot from Jane's.

Jane felt her breath catch again. Maura was so close…Maura's lips were so close. It wouldn't be hard to just lean forward and… and what? Kiss her? Yes, that was exactly what Jane wanted to do in this moment. But was it right? Was it what Maura wanted?

"Maura." She tried to keep her voice neutral, but it came out sounding more like a cross between a warning and asking for permission.

"Jane." Maura's squeezed the hand of Jane's that she still held. "I love you."


	17. Aftermath

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine. what a bummer.

A/N:: short but sweet chapter. i've had this done for days but the internet on my laptop is being very picky about when it decides to work, which is generally mornings, and unfortunately, that's also when i happen to work. i have a personal connection to the way i'm going to handle jane's emotions from this point forward regarding maura. i love you is not easy to say, especially if you've almost lost somebody.

-/-

Maura had expected the world to come crashing down (figuratively of course) when she uttered those words in front of Jane. But it didn't. If anything, the world fell into place. She felt the great weight of the secret she'd been carrying slip from her shoulders and breathing became easier.

She searched Jane's face for anything, any emotion. It took her a second to realize Jane was doing the same thing to her.

It didn't bother her that Jane didn't say it back, though she had assumed it would; she'd thought it would hurt like hell. That was the main reason she never made assumptions… she always seemed to be proven wrong.

Finally Jane moved. Her hand came to Maura's face, cupping her cheek. She leaned into the touch. Her lips found Jane's wrist, her palm, the pads of her fingers. And Jane's lips in turn found her throat, her jaw, her cheek. And then their lips came together naturally.

Maura felt as if she could kiss Jane forever. The feeling of Jane's mouth against hers sent her head spinning. She crawled into Jane's lap, straddling her hips, their bodies pressed together. Her hands clutched Jane's as they kissed, their fingers entwined.

Jane's hands slipped from hers as she pulled away a little. Her hands rested on Maura's hips, gently pulling her closer. Maura's arms wrapped around Jane's neck and she hugged her hard. Jane's hands moved slowly up her back and back down again.

Finally Maura released her from the death grip and looked into her eyes. "Will you stay with me tonight?"

Jane smiled. "I thought we already established I was staying here until you get better."

Maura shook her head and kissed Jane gently on the lips. "That's not what I meant."

Jane felt her insides melt and twist at the same time. She'd imagined this a million different ways… but to get what you've always wanted, while amazing, can also be frightening. She was now on the boundary line between everything she knew and the unknown, uncharted territory.

It would have been easy to say those three little words back to Maura, the phrase had fallen from her mouth enough times in the three decades she'd been alive, but they now held so much more meaning. She wasn't saying this to her Ma… this was Maura. And to say 'I love you' to Maura was to risk everything. Was she ready to do that?

"You don't have to say it back Jane." Maura smiled reassuringly and she meant it. It just felt so good to say it and to always assume that someone we have feelings for has the same feelings back is illogical. It's unfair to expect someone to say something so important just because you did.

Jane searched Maura's eyes, trying to read through the façade to her real emotions. Her mind drifted to the day of the shooting, of Maura shuddering as the bullets struck, of her falling back, of her eyes closing and her breathing coming to a halt. She remembered back to the countless hours she'd spent talking to Maura while she was unconscious in that hospital bed and she remembered that she would have stayed there forever if that's how long it took for Maura to wake up. But Maura had woken up; Jane had gotten a second chance. Why was she wasting it?

She pulled Maura back up into her arms, hugging her fiercely, as if the realization of almost losing the medical examiner had finally caught up with her. She buried her face in Maura's golden waves and willed herself not to cry, unsuccessfully.

She felt Jane's tears, hot against her neck, but she didn't ask, didn't push. It wasn't often Jane was this vulnerable… it was a side she seemed to share only with Maura.

Finally Jane pulled away. She leveled Maura with the most serious glare she could manage with red brimmed eyes. "Don't ever put me through that again. If you had made me bury you too…" She looked down as more tears threatened to spill over.

"Jane." She gave the detective a second but she still wouldn't look up. "Jane, look at me." She put a finger under Jane's chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "You've chosen a job that puts your life in danger every single day… you can't order immortality on me just because you care about me." She ran her thumb across Jane's cheek.

Jane nodded. "Yes I can."

"And what makes me so special?" Maura raised an eyebrow.

Jane pressed her lips against Maura's ear. "I love you Maura, that's what makes you special."

Maura closed her eyes. For the first time since the shooting she felt no guilt, only happiness that she'd pulled through… to think she would have missed this moment.


	18. Morning After

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: sorry this took so long, our internet is down and i have resorted to waiting for use of the computer at work...yeah, that's few and far between. another short chapter but the next one will be longer i promise.

-/-

Jane had none of the usual disorientation that commonly accompanies waking up after a fitful sleep. She knew exactly where she was and exactly what had happened the night before. That didn't change that the previous night's events felt like a dream to her.

She glanced at the sleeping form next to her and had to stifle a chuckle. For all Maura's complaining that Jane slept in her clothes, there she was… still in yesterday's outfit. She took time to let the moment sink in. The steady rise and fall of Maura's chest was like a lullaby, nearly lulling her back to sleep in it's perfectly timed lift and drop. She'd never seen a hair out of place on Maura's head and this morning was no exception; her golden waves framed her face on the pillow.

She'd woken up next to Maura several times before, but never had it meant this much. As she stared at the sleeping medical examiner, she realized for the first time in her life that she could, that she actually wanted to, wake up next to this person forever.

She leaned forward and kissed Maura's shoulder softly, but the brief contact was enough to wake the sleeping ME. Maura's eyes blinked several times, forcing the sleep from them. Then they rested their gaze on Jane and her lips turned up in a smile.

"Good morning."

Jane smiled. "It is, a very good morning."

Maura looked at Jane's very clothed state of dress. "We didn't."

Jane shook her head. "No, we didn't."

Maura sighed. "Shame."

Jane chuckled. "Oh really?"

Maura nodded. "Yes it is because I am an awesome lay."

Jane nearly choked. Though it was common for the forensic pathologist to be slightly un-modest, it was not common for her to speak so informally.

As soon as she composed herself, Jane smirked. "I have no doubt that's the truth."

Maura leaned in and captured Jane's lips in a hard but unhurried kiss.

Jane pressed her body close to Maura's deepening the kiss just slightly.

For several minutes they stayed like that, on the edge between comfortable and taking it to the next level. It was Jane who finally pulled away.

"I have to go to work."

Maura shook her head. "No you don't." She pulled Jane back into another kiss, holding her tight so she couldn't manage to pull away for another few minutes. Finally, she got the upper hand and once again retreated.

"I really have to go."

Maura smiled. "I'm a doctor; I'll write you a note."

Jane laughed. "You're a forensic pathologist."

Maura frowned. "So?"

Jane slid off the bed, even though everything inside her was opposing her actions. "Unfortunately, I have a murderer to catch."

"Do you like the new medical examiner?"

That question caught Jane off guard and she looked at Maura curiously.

"Inspector Hepburn told me. She said he's well qualified."

Jane turned away. "He's not you."

"Jane."

The detective held up a hand. "He's temporary Maura, no need to even concern yourself with his presence, okay?"

Maura didn't press the issue. She knew how territorial Jane was and for someone new to be granted access to their little homicide department family was irking the detective more than she was letting on.

"I'm going with you."

Jane, having just grabbed her coat, shook her head. "Oh no. You need to stay home and rest."

Maura glared at her and got up from the bed. "I'm a big girl Jane; I can handle myself perfectly well thank you. I'm fine and I'm going."

Jane walked around the bed and stood toe to toe with the ME. "You are staying here where you can stay safe."

Maura shook her head. "You can't protect me forever Jane."

"Try me."

"I'm going with you."

Jane sighed. She knew fighting about this was pointless. If there was one quality she and Maura both shared, it was stubbornness.

"Are you sure you're ready to go back?"

Maura smiled and gave Jane a soft peck on the lips. "I love that you're concerned, but I'm fine; I'll be fine."

Jane tried to hide the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach that Maura's kiss had caused with a scowl. "I'm giving you ten minutes to get ready. Ten minutes Maura."

Maura grinned. She had won.


	19. Office Games

DISCLAIMER:: yeah, not mine

A/N:: my laptop is still on the fritz and is not allowing me on the internet all too much. bummer. but i'm still out there producing updates, just not able to upload them. here's a longer chapter, cutsie if i do say so myself. i'll try and pop out another one before my business trip next week. r & r.

-/-

"What happened to you?" Korsak raised an eyebrow as Jane slunk to her desk, coffee in hand, sour look on her face.

"Slept over at Maura's."

"We could have a protection detail do round the clock surveillance at her place Jane, you don't have to play babysitter."

"I am offended by the implication that I am not adequately mature enough to provide my own supervision." Maura sailed effortlessly into the room after Jane, somehow looking as perfect as she would on any work day, despite the ten minute time limit Jane had given her to get ready that morning.

"Dr. Isles." Frost smiled from his desk, genuinely happy to see her.

"Barry. Vince." She nodded to them in turn and settled into the seat next to Jane's desk, beaming at the female detective, her eyes alight with the secret of what really happened between them the previous night.

"What you doing here, doc?" Korsak eyed her curiously from his desk, a million questions in his eyes.

"I wanted to introduce myself to Dr. Kim. I've heard he comes highly recommended."

Korsak still seemed suspicious but he accepted the answer and went back to the file on his desk.

Maura, now out of the spotlight, turned her attention to Jane. "I think we should go pick up Bass and Joe from your parents place after work. Poor Bass was sick and I'm sure Joe is driving your mother crazy."

Jane saw Korsak and Frost staring at them from the corner of her eyes. The comment was innocent enough, but something about the comfortable way the words left Maura's mouth just sounded like a wife rattling off her to do list to her husband, like she was telling Jane to make sure she took out the trash.

"Um, yeah, sure."

If Maura noticed Jane's sudden uneasiness, she made no acknowledgement of it.

"Well, I'll head off downstairs then." She stood and was out the door in a second.

-/-

Maura was perched on one of the autopsy tables, staring at Luke in what Jane could only describe as admiration. A pang of jealousy reared its ugly head in the pit of her stomach. Luke's attraction to the female ME rolled off him in waves. He wanted her, the desire was tangible, though Maura seemed thoroughly unaware of it.

Jane knocked on the open door so as not to alarm them but she still saw a momentary flash of fear sail through Maura's eyes and the sight broke her heart. The medical examiner had been trying so hard not to let her fear get the better of her, but Jane knew there was still a part of Maura that was afraid of this place.

"Jane." Maura didn't try to hide her pleasure at the detective's appearance. "We have something for you. Luke found a shiny residue on the first victim's temple."

Dr. Kim nodded. "It appears the perp attempted to rub it off, however, I was able to find small trace amounts of polyisobutene and titanium dioxide."

"Am I supposed to know what that all means?" Jane used her usual dry tone.

"No, and I didn't either, but Dr. Isles knew exactly what substance we're dealing with."

"It's lipgloss Jane, high end." Maura beamed. "Do you know what that means?"

Jane nodded. "We're looking for a woman."

"I was going to say transvestite, but that works too."

"Was that humor, and maybe a small hint of sarcasm, I just detected Dr. Isles?" Jane placed herself right in front of Maura, her hands positioned on either side of the ME on the table, her body leaning in ever so slightly. She smirked.

Maura smiled, her eyes daring. "I learned from the best." She glanced over at Luke. Once she saw his back was to them, she pulled Jane closer, kissing her hard.

Jane felt a twist of fear in her gut over the possibility of getting caught. But that quickly melted away and her hands slid up the outside of Maura's thighs to her hips.

Maura pushed her away just a second before Luke turned around. He glanced between them for a moment. "Detective, are you alright? You look a little flushed."

Jane could only nod her answer, already brutally aware of the heat that prickled over her whole body.

"Are you sure?" He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah, I'm, uh, fine. It's just a little hot in here." Jane fanned her face with her hand for emphasis.

Finally satisfied with her answer, Luke returned to his task, turning his back to the women once more.

Jane took the initiative this time, crashing into Maura so hard that the female ME nearly fell backward off the autopsy table she was perched on. For a few moments Maura, now breathless, let Jane's mouth and tongue do all the talking, but they were in a room with someone else and it's rude to make out in front of someone who has no one of their own to make out with. Maura Isles knew she was socially awkward, but she also knew enough to know that was inappropriate social etiquette. She pushed Jane away and motioned with her eyes towards Dr. Kim.

Jane rolled her eyes and leaned towards her ear. "Fine, you win. You're safe for now, but you're in big trouble later."

The whispered threat/promise caused her to shiver.

Jane backed away from her with a smirk, knowing she'd won that round.

-/-

When Jane finally made it back upstairs, there was someone she hadn't expected to see waiting by her desk. Two someone's actually.

"Ma?"

Angela Rizzoli turned and smiled. "Janie!"

Jane was mortified. It wasn't like everyone in the room hadn't had a run in with Angela Rizzoli at one point or another, but it didn't change how embarrassing her mom could be. She was at work, and she did try to maintain somewhat of a badass reputation. _Janie _didn't help the cause.

"Your mother was just regaling me with stories from your childhood." Samantha Pringle smiled from her spot next to Angela.

"Ma! She could be a stranger for all you know!"

Angela waved it off. "She's not a stranger Jane. She's here to see you."

Jane rolled her eyes. It occurred to her to argue that she was a detective and she wasn't exactly personally acquainted with everyone who came by her desk, but there was no point.

"What are you doing here Ma? I'm working."

Angela Rizzoli didn't seemed phased by that fact. "I brought you and Maura lunch."

"Thank you." Jane smiled genuinely at her mother. "Now go. Maura and I have to get some work done. We're coming over after work to pick up Bass and Joe."

That statement had the desired effect and Angela left with a smile.

"Sorry bout that." She turned to Samantha Pringle.

"No, it's good. It's been a long time since I've seen something that normal." She chuckled. "It's good, you know, to see that normal still exists."

Jane let Samantha have her moment, before she stepped in. "What can I do for you?"

Samantha nodded. "I remembered something. Rebecca had this diner she always went to. Maxine's. It's a couple blocks from her place. It's open 24 hours so she liked to go there when she got off work. She took me several times. She would have taken that girl too. I think the owner might be able to identify her, if you get any solid suspects."

Jane felt her stomach lift. A lead. Finally. "Thanks."

Samantha nodded. She turned away. "You know, when you have the possibility to forgive someone you care about, you never realize how stupid you are for not taking it until it's not a possibility anymore."

"We always think we have forever." Jane didn't know where it came from, but it was the only comforting words she could think of that didn't sound utterly cliché.

"Until we don't."


	20. The Woman In The Photograph

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine.

A/N:: alas, my loyal readers, i have been sans computer for nearly a month, a tragedy i'm amazed i was able to actually live through... but i now have it back. yay! that means more updates for you, though not as frequently as i'd like because it is still the busy season at work and i am finding myself struggling slightly when faced with my new status as single mom. not exactly where i thought i'd be when someone was whispering forever in my ear. but anyhoo... i'm just getting to the good part in this fic and i can assure you there are no plans of stopping.

-/-

The bell over the door pinged as Jane entered the small old fashioned diner. The walls were covered in pictures signed by the famous people they depicted. The booths were something out of the 50's as well as the long counter and old style menu on the wall behind it.

A man behind the counter looked up and smiled at her, though his eyes flashed with a hint of suspicion. He hadn't seen her here before and that was obviously cause for alert. When Jane didn't take one of the many available empty seats, his smile faltered. "Can I help you?" He wasn't rude about asking, but he also made no attempt to hide his growing distrust of the situation.

Jane held up her badge. "Detective Rizzoli. I'd like to ask the owner of this establishment a few questions."

The guy nodded. "That'd be me."

Jane meant to hide the surprise in her voice, but her timing was off. "You're Maxine?"

The man, thankfully, didn't seem put off by the incredulity in her voice. In fact, he seemed used to it. "It was my dad's place before he passed away. He named it after my mom." The guy glanced around in soft recollection before looking back at Jane. "He left it to me. I'm Carter."

She shook the hand he offered. "Jane." She had no idea what possessed her to give her first name to this man, but there was something she trusted about him.

"So, Detective, what can I do for you?"

"I'm wondering if you recall this woman?" She held up a picture of Rebecca Dalton. "She was one of your regulars."

Carter nodded. "Becky. Everyone knew Becky. She was here six mornings a week, after her shift at the hospital." He shook his head. "It's so sad what happened to her. All the regulars, we're like family here. It hit us really hard. We even put up a little memorial collage in her memory." He motioned towards a space on the wall where photos were clustered all together.

"Did she ever bring anyone in with her?"

"She brought Sam all the time. And Dawn. Those three were attached at the hip most of the time. But about a month ago she stopped bringing them in. I haven't seen Sam since the break up and Becky said she was fighting a lot with Dawn over the new girl she was seeing."

"Did she ever bring the new girlfriend in?"

Carter nodded solemnly. "Just once. She was a real hard ass. She didn't really fit in with the crowd here, and she seemed almost paranoid about being out in public together, like the gay police were going to swoop in and arrest her or something."

Jane felt her stomach flip. This was the closest she'd come to finding out who this mystery woman was.

"Can you describe her? Miss Pringle had never met her, and Dawn…" She trailed off.

He looked off in thought, his eyes scrunching as he tried to recall the memory. "She was pretty, dark hair, tall."

"Any other details." Jane felt her stomach sink. Without anything more to go on, this was just another dead end.

"Hold on, I think she might actually be in one of the photos." He walked over to the collage on the wall and glanced through several photos.

Jane held back the nagging urge to race over to the wall and look with him. Instead, she held back and waited until he had plucked a photo off the wall. He brought it over. He handed it to her.

"I'm sorry it's not a better photo."

Jane examined the photograph, her eyes going first to the smiling blonde that had been Maura's nurse. Next to Rebecca was a beautiful woman with dark hair. Her smile was forced; she obviously was not happy they were being photographed.

"Can I keep this?" She held up the photograph.

Carter nodded. "Sure."

"Thank you. I appreciate your help."

She pulled out her phone as she exited the diner and called Maura.

"Come on, baby, pick up." It occurred to her to be surprised at the term of endearment, but it came so easily that she let her surprise slide away without really feeling it.

But Maura didn't answer.

She dialed Frost. He picked up on the first ring.

"Frost."

"Frost, is Maura still down in the morgue?"

"I saw her about an hour ago and she seemed pretty tired, but she said she wanted to wait for you to get back."

"Good. Can you keep an eye on her until I get there?"

"Sure." He cleared his throat. "Jane, is something wrong?"

"I'll fill you in when I get back."

-/-

Jane was sure she'd never driven faster in her life than she did while making her way back to headquarters from the diner. She felt a twisting feeling in her stomach and she knew the only way to relieve it was going to be seeing for herself that Maura was alright.

Instead of going to the morgue first, she ran upstairs to the bullpen to find Frost. She found him sitting at his desk, looking serious, but not alarmed and the sight comforted her. If anything was wrong with Maura, he'd look worried… mostly because he'd know Jane was going to kick his ass.

"Maura's okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah Jane, she fine. What's got you so on edge?"

"Let me get Maura up here so I can fill everyone in at once."

"Maura's not here."

Jane froze. "What? I just asked you if she was okay and you said…"

Frost held up a hand. "She is okay. She was tired, so Veronica took her home."

Jane nodded slowly. "I should go check on her."

Frost frowned. "She's perfectly capable of taking care of herself Jane, and she's got help."

Jane shook her head. "I should go."

Frost could only stare in wonder after her as she ran out of the station, looking more spooked than he'd ever seen her.


	21. Taking Posession

DISCLAIMER:: not mine. sigh.

A/N:: unfortunately the end of 2010 did not go as planned, or i would have posted this much sooner. with a new (demanding) job, a 16 month old, a wedding to plan, moving, and my studies to focus on, i have barely had time to breathe. but my laptop looked at me this morning with big puppy dog eyes that said "i feel neglected. spend time with me", so i busted out the last few paragraphs and presto... one new update served steaming hot. i am on a two week vacation from work and by two week vacation i mean time to veg out on my floor with my laptop and get to writing. hoping to bust out a few more updates before i have to return to slave labor. R&R. much love.

-/-

Jane knew the second she pulled up in front of the house that Maura wasn't there. It looked cold, uninviting. There was an emptiness that permeated from the normally warm and elegant house.

Jane didn't know what to do… should she cry, should she go on a search for Maura herself, should she call it in… she couldn't decide what to do. This was one of the most crucial moments in her life and she was sitting in the driver's seat of her car, pondering possibilities.

Her mind raced with memories…

-/-

"Have you seen the new ME?" Korsak leaned across her desk, his face a foot from hers, his eyes glinting like a kid with a secret only seconds away from slipping out between his lips.

I rolled my eyes and laughed darkly, standing. "Please don't tell me he's fat, bald, and unbearably juvenile like the last one."

"She ain't fat, or bald, and I _hope_ she's juvenile. The last thing we need is another tight ass like you round here."

"Big words for someone who dreams about my tight ass."

We both shared equal looks of disgust when we realized what I had just said. After a moment of being appropriately grossed out at the thought of the man who was my pseudo big brother considering me a piece of ass, we both simultaneously burst into laughter.

"You're gluteal muscles do appear rather firm, however I don't see how that has any bearing on your maturity level."

Both Korsak and I stopped laughing and turned to see what could only be described as a supermodel. The woman before us was wearing a dress that was just long enough to be appropriate, but just short enough that it left you wanting and probably had a price tag that exceeded my annual income. Her skin was smooth and tan, her makeup expertly done, and her blonde hair was styled in just the right way that it framed her face perfectly. And yet there was an intense curiosity in her eyes as if she was studying not only me and Korsak, but every detail of the world around us.

It took nearly a minute of stunned silence to realize she was talking to me and another long thirty seconds to realize she had just given my ass a compliment, or at least I think it was a compliment….

For all our staring, the woman waited patiently for an answer. Every second or so, the curiosity in her eyes was replaced by confusion, but it was swept away almost before I could register the change, and it occurred to me that this woman, though she appeared the picture of confidence, was insecure in our gaze.

In the ninety seconds of silence, I memorized a million barely imperceptible details only to come to one grand realization… that I could spend forever with this woman and still never memorize everything. The thought both disappointed and surprised me.

It was Korsak who finally came to my rescue and banished the silence. "Sorry, Janie here doesn't speak google. Her brain doesn't work that fast."

I instinctively slapped him across the back of the head, but he only chuckled in response and bowed ungracefully out of the conversation.

"I'm Jane Rizzoli." It occurred to me that common courtesy would be to offer a handshake, but she seemed too dignified for the greetings of a commonplace tomboy from Boston.

"I'm Maura. Dr. Maura Isles." She smiled and my heart thumped so loudly in my chest I was sure she could hear it, but if she did, she kept it to herself. "I'm the new medical examiner."

-/-

A knock on her window shook Jane out of her reverie.

She jumped nearly out of her skin and looked over to see Maura staring in at her with a confused expression on her face.

Jane felt a tidal wave of relief wash over her body and she threw the car door open, nearly knocking Maura over in the process. But she slammed it shut and pulled Maura into a tight embrace, burying her face in the medical examiner's hair, not caring who might see this moment of affection.

"Jane, honey, what's wrong?" Maura was whispering in her ear.

It took Jane forever to answer. She wanted to hold the moment as long as she could before she was forced to ruin it.

Finally she pulled back. "Where's Detective Hepburn?"

Maura frowned. "Home, I presume. Or she could have gone back to work I suppose. She just drove me home."

Jane nodded, feeling all the pent up stress and anxiousness leave her body.

"Jane, why are you acting out of character? What happened?"

Jane shook her head. "Let's get you inside first."

Maura nodded and led the way up the front walk to the door. Once inside, Maura headed straight for a fresh bottle of wine and while Jane stepped into the living room to call Frost and tell him Maura was alright and to keep an eye on Veronica until Jane got a chance to question her regarding her relationship with the first victim.

"Jane."

Jane flipped her phone closed and turned to face Maura, who stood in the doorway, looking hopelessly confused.

Jane smiled and sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to her.

Maura came and sat next to her, handing her a beer as she sipped from her own wineglass. Jane took a swig from the bottle and then set it down on the side table. She ran her hands down her thighs, smoothing out invisible wrinkles on her pants.

"Are you going to make me drag it out of you?" Maura placed one of her hands over Jane's to still it.

"Detective Hepburn was romantically involved with the first murder victim."

"Becky?" Maura seemed stunned. "And Veronica?"

"I checked out the diner that Rebecca used to frequent and the owner identified Veronica as her mystery woman."

"So you thought she was going to do something to me… that's why you rushed home?"

Jane nodded and took another sip of her beer.

Maura was quiet for a long time, her face contemplative.

Jane was uneasy in the silence; she couldn't read Maura's thoughts or even determine their direction for that matter and that bothered her more than she had expected it would.

As if sensing her discomfort, Maura sighed. "I don't know whether to be flattered or offended. I wish you wouldn't think of me as being so helpless."

Jane most certainly hadn't been expecting that. "What are you talking about?"

Maura frowned and nursed her wine, not answering for several minutes. "Since I was shot everyone's been treating me differently, especially you."

Jane shook her head. "I have no clue what you're talking about Maura; no one is treating you differently."

"Actually, Jane, everyone is treating me differently. No one calls me Queen of the Dead anymore. Everyone is always asking if I'm okay or if I need anything. I'm accustomed to being self-sufficient Jane; it's how I've always lived my life."

Jane knew better than to touch Maura when she was upset with her, but she did anyway, sliding over and wrapping her arms around the medical examiner. She held tighter when Maura struggled and she eventually won the battle; the blonde relaxed into her embrace.

"I did what I did that day because I love you Jane. It was the simplest decision I've ever had to make. I am not damaged because of it, nor depressed. I don't regret it for a moment. I wish people would stop treating me like I'm one second away from an emotional breakdown. It wasn't a decision I was forced to make; it was a choice."

Jane kissed Maura's neck softly. She had been treating Maura as if she were fragile ever since she brought her home from the hospital; even when she was in the hospital for that matter. Her reluctance in telling Maura about Veronica proved that. She didn't think Maura could handle it. Her first instinct when she'd seen Maura was alright today had been to hold her. And therein lay the problem.

"I have been treating you differently… but I'm not going to stop."

Maura went rigid, pulling out of her arms. "Jane." There was warning and a twinge of pain in her voice.

Jane shook her head. "It should have been me… I was supposed to be shot that day. I was ready to be the one."

"Jane."

But Jane ignored her and continued on without hesitation. "It was my brother. I was focused on saving him, on making you save him, that I didn't think about getting us out of there. And in the end, it didn't matter. I put all of us in danger, and both of you paid for it."

"Jane." Maura grabbed her hand, but she pulled it away.

"No. I love you Maura, and it is my job to take care of you and protect you. I will never stop doing that. I won't risk losing you again. Even if it means having to mow creeps over in my motorized scooter when I'm 92, I will always protect you. Please don't ask me not to."

Just as the tears started to fall, Maura's lips collided with hers. Jane pulled away in shock, her brow furrowing in confusion. One moment, Maura is scolding her for being overprotective, and now, after she just admitted that she wasn't going to change said behavior Maura's practically straddling her lap.

Maura smiled and wiped away her tears. "Am I yours, Jane Rizzoli? Is that what your trying to tell me?"

Jane smiled, her hands resting on the waist of the blonde that straddled her lap. "If you are open to the idea, yes."

Maura leaned in and stole another kiss from the detective. "Yes, I think I'd like that… I'd like to belong to you Jane."


	22. Too Little Too Late

DISCLAIMER:: not mine.

A/N:: had this all week, just haven't had a chance to post since i've been away in the mountains. back now and working on two more updates that i can hopefully post before i go back to work. R&R.

WARNING:: i personally do not believe the content in this chapter is very descriptive and is rather benign as far as bedroom scenes go, but never the less i must cover all my bases. so, for those of you uncomfortable with implied lesbian sex scenes and the like, please feel free to skip over the first part of this chapter.

-/-

Jane was gentle as she pushed Maura down onto the bed and the medical examiner allowed her that much. She pulled off her blazer and tossed it aside; she put her firearm and badge on the nightstand. Maura got up, her hands attacking the buttons of Jane's shirt. She undid them carefully, slowly, taking her time. Jane watched her with lust filled eyes, wanting to interrupt, to just rip the shirt off and take Maura right there, but she held back and let Maura complete her task.

Maura unzipped her dress and let it slip effortlessly down her body and to the floor, leaving her clad in nothing but lacy lingerie. Jane let her hands reach out and roam the planes of Maura's stomach, her eyes and mind memorizing every detail her hands felt.

Maura's hands were busy in their own right. She was unzipping the fly of Jane's slacks and pushing them down the detective's legs. Jane broke all contact for a moment to step out of the pants.

Maura put a hand on Jane's cheek and directed the detective's mouth down to hers. She forced her tongue into Jane's mouth pulling the detective's body hard against her own.

They fell onto the bed as one, pulling their bodies as close together as they possibly could without actually melding together.

Maura's skin was softer than Jane had imagined it would be. She felt as if she was running her hands over the fine silk of one of Maura's designer dresses. Maura's eyes stayed locked on hers as her hands sank lower between their bodies. She cradled Jane with her gaze, back and forth, like a lullaby you know by heart.

When Jane reached her destination, Maura let out a small gasp, forcing the detective to grin. She delved deeper and Maura took a sharp intake of breath and imperceptibly leaned into the touch.

"Jane." That one word slips from her mouth and it's the sexiest thing Jane Rizzoli has ever heard. That is until her fingers slide even deeper and Maura whimpers with need and the detective is forced to recant her previous statement.

-/-

Jane brushed a loose strand of Maura's hair behind her ear. The medical examiner didn't wake up at the touch; she didn't even shift.

Jane slid out of bed and got dressed quickly. She needed to get back to work before Detective Hepburn left. It was her only lead in a case that was turning cold quick. She left a note on the dresser for Maura where she knew she'd find it. She had already considered waking the medical examiner up to say goodbye properly, but Maura needed all the rest she could get. Despite her brave face, she was still recovering after all.

She leaned down and touched a soft kiss to Maura's lips before turning and leaving the room.

Frost was waiting for her at the door of the bullpen when she arrived.

"What's with the welcome wagon?" Jane raised an eyebrow at him curiously.

He motioned over his shoulder at the leggy detective sitting in Jane's chair.

"Hello, Detective Rizzoli. I trust your…" The detective made a show of looking at the clock. "…three hour break was eventful."

Jane crossed the room. She was done with the stick up this lady's ass. She leaned across her desk and was met with a daring gaze and the smirk of someone who believes they hold all the cards. Oh, Jane was going to enjoy this.

"I trust you reported your sexual relationship with my first victim."

Veronica's face fell. "Excuse me?"

"I have a witness who confirmed you were romantically involved with Rebecca Dalton, so I get to ask the questions here."

-/-

Jane had to admit that it felt good to be on the interrogating end of this situation.

Veronica sat slumped in her chair, defeated. She had complied without objection when Jane had insisted they move to the interrogation room.

"When did you meet Rebecca Dalton?"

"We met a few days after I was assigned to your case, at the hospital. It wasn't supposed to be anything. A hookup really. I had just come out of a long relationship that ended badly. She was upset over a small fight she'd had with her girlfriend. There wasn't a bar open that early, so she invited me back to her place for a drink. One drink became two, which became three, then four, and so on. The next thing I know I wake up in her bed in my birthday suit with a massive hangover."

"But you saw her again? It ended up being more than a hookup."

Veronica nodded. "I'm not gay. It was a lapse in judgment and I told her I didn't want to see her again. She agreed, said she was in love with Sam… her girlfriend. We agreed to never talk about it and forget it ever even happened. But Rebecca insisted on telling Dawn, they shared everything. I always felt that maybe Dawn was really the one that Rebecca loved, but she was just too scared to tell her, afraid that if Dawn reacted badly it would destroy their friendship or if she reacted well it would destroy a good family. I don't think Dawn told, Rebecca swore she wouldn't, but Sam found out somehow. It was one night, but Sam knew." Veronica ran a hand down her face. "Rebecca cornered me at the hospital one day when I was checking on Dr. Isles' condition. She accused me of telling Sam right before she broke down. I took her home, and it happened again, except we weren't drunk that time." Veronica smiled to herself. "She made me feel a little less lonely and I eased her pain… it was a business arrangement more than it was ever a relationship."

"But you went with her to Maxine's… that looks a lot like a date to me. Dates are relationship territory." Jane sat across from Veronica, resting her elbows on the table and glaring at the IA detective.

"I was uncomfortable the whole time. It was against my better judgment to get involved with her and even more against it to agree to go out. It was about sex for both of us in the beginning, but Rebecca thought maybe we should try doing more."

"And you resented her for that. She was deviating from the plan, pushing you into a relationship you didn't want."

Veronica shook her head. "That's where you're wrong. At first, yes, I was reluctant because it was new and unusual, but after that night we went back to her apartment and I told her we could go out more often. I said I wanted to try it."

"Where were you the morning she died?"

Veronica gave an empty laugh. "Church." She wiped away a tear. "Praying for forgiveness. Pastor Lindsay can verify that I was there."

Jane had been observing Veronica's every emotion. She didn't believe for a second that Veronica wanted a relationship with Rebecca Dalton. In fact she believed that their arrangement changed, and not for the better, after that night at Maxine's. However, she found herself also believing that Veronica did not kill Rebecca Dalton.

"Did Rebecca seem…" Jane had decided to try a different tactic before a knock on the door interrupted her. She looked up just as Korsak popped his head in, his face grim.

He cleared his throat. "Rizzoli, can I speak with you a moment."

Alarms went up in Jane the second he used her last name instead of her first. She excused herself and walked out of the room with Korsak.

"What's wrong Korsak? You're kind of freaking me out." She put her hands on her hips.

"Jane… your phone rang and when Frost saw who was calling, he picked it up."

Jane raised an eyebrow. "You look like someone killed your dog because Frost picked up my phone. He's the one in danger, not you."

"Jane, it was Maura."

"What's wrong?" Jane was on full alert now. Maura had been fine when she had left.

"By the time the nearest unit reached her place, it was too late."


	23. A Midnight DEADline

DISCLAIMER:: Still own not a thing

A/N:: i tried to update quickly so as not to torture everyone too much... but i've always been just a little guilty of being a tease :]

-/-

"Jane did you hear me?"

The truth was, she hadn't. She had heard nothing he'd said after _too late_. Those words repeated over and over in her head as she thought of a million possible ways they had found the body of her lover. Was her throat cut? Had she been shot? Beat to death? Or was this something a little more sick?

"Jane, she was taken." Korsak grabbed her shoulders and shook her until her eyes locked on his. "Someone took her."

-/-

"What exactly did she say Frost?" Jane could barely keep the venomous urgency out of her voice as she paced in front of their desks in the bullpen.

Barry looked like hell but Jane was too preoccupied with assuming the worst to care.

"S-she kept saying your name. She was frantic. She said 'someone's in the house Jane'. Then I heard the sound of a door being kicked in. S-she…" He paled. "She didn't scream, she just started rambling off a description. Tall, over six feet, male, blonde." He shook his head. "He… he hit her. Then the line went d-dead." Frost followed Jane's manic pacing with his eyes. He'd seen Jane fired up, he'd seen her distraught, he'd seen her determined, but he'd never seen her look as if the battle was already lost... but right now, there was just the smallest trace of defeat in Jane Rizzoli's eyes and that terrified him.

Jane felt her stomach drop away and her heart sink. This was looking grimmer by the second.

-/-

The door was wide open and patrol cars littered the driveway and surrounding street. Jane took a deep breath and entered. Several uniforms were in the kitchen and Jane paled when she saw the blood.

"She came down to the kitchen to get something, that's when he surprised her. The knife responsible for the blood was knocked under the table. The prints on the grip appear to be female, but the test on the blood hasn't come back yet. A blood trail leads up the stairs. It looks like she cut him, he knocked the knife out of her hands and she ran. Once he got over the initial shock, he pursued her up the stairs to the bedroom. She…"

Jane ignored the first responding officer as he rattled off details she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She turned and made her own way up the stairs to the bedroom she'd left earlier. The door was busted in, the heavy wood splintered in several places.

"He was wearing work boots, heavy. This wood is too thick to kick in without a heavy enough protection to absorb the shock." Jane moved past it after her speculation.

She looked in on the bed where she'd been with Maura less than five hours prior. The sheets were now tangled and hanging half off the bed, blood spattered across them in several places. Maura's phone was smashed on the floor, another victim of the man's boot. More blood was on the carpet and bedside table.

"Any wounds sustained weren't fatal, there's not enough blood." Dr. Luke Kim looked at her apologetically and she wondered for a moment if he actually had noticed her and Maura kissing in the morgue before and had just been too polite to comment.

Jane nodded. "Maura was alive when he took her." She knew Maura had left this house, deep in her gut, she knew.

Korsak frowned. "The doc's been outta commission for a while now. Why take her? What's the motive here?"

Jane frowned. "It's me. They took her because of me."

-/-

"DNA analysis came back on the samples from the kitchen and bedroom. Officer Hart's suspicions about the events in the kitchen were correct. The prints on the knife grip belong to Dr. Maura Isles and the blood came back with no match, but it is most definitely male. As for the blood in the bedroom however, we found both the perp's blood and Dr. Isles'. I think that punch Detective Frost heard on the phone may have caused her to fall towards the bed, they found traces of her blood and skin cells on the corner of the nightstand, it's possible she made contact before hitting the bed and she was cut… I can't say for sure until we have a wound to match the impression."

Luke walked over to his computer and started tapping away. "I also found hairs on the floor by the bed, blonde, but they were too short and too light to belong to Dr. Isles. I would assume they're the perps, though there is not enough to make a positive DNA match to the male blood sample."

Jane could barely stand; she was feeling so sick. Why had she traded being with Maura to come interview Veronica? It could have waited. She obviously hadn't known Jane was onto her; it's not like she would have disappeared, especially since she's wasn't even guilty of Rebecca Dalton's murder, everything in Jane's gut told her so. She had yet to confirm her alibi, with this new crime to distract her, but she had no doubt it would pan out.

"Detective?"

Jane's head snapped up to find Luke way too close with a look of pure concern on his face. Jane held up a hand to both prevent him from moving closer and to non-verbally confirm she was fine, or at least that she didn't want to discuss it. She couldn't talk about Maura, especially not with him.

How did her world change so drastically in just a few short months? She went from being confident, knowing where everything and everyone fit into her life. She had a good life then, everything was in its place. The only thing she could remember wanting to change was to be even more close to Maura. Now she had that wish. She had the intimacy that she'd longed for, but the cost was great. She no longer knew how to hold the seams of her perfect world together. How did it go so wrong? Bobby Marino… he's where it went wrong. He put a bad taste of disloyalty in the mouth of every badge in the precinct, hell, in the city. He had shown how far a good cop could fall… murder, drug running, hostage situations. She questioned every gut instinct now, where as she used to rely on those very instincts to take down perps. But here she had spent her evening trying to prove Veronica's guilt because her gut told her there was something dark about the woman, and meanwhile Maura was left unprotected. She couldn't trust her gut, because her gut was now too suspicious of everyone. That's what Bobby Marino had done.

"Call me if you find anything else?" Jane didn't wait for an answer, but instead just made a beeline for the door. She had to go up and she if Korsak and Frost had made any progress. She had to feel like she was doing something.

-/-

The bullpen was a mad rush. Frost was on the phone. Korsak was yelling at some uniforms and everyone else was in an utter frenzy. This was too close to Danny's murder… no one was ready to reopen those wounds with another death of one of their own. Maura may be the "queen of the dead" but that didn't mean she wasn't family.

All the madness and noise faded into the background as her phone rang. She figured it was probably her mom calling to ask why she hadn't stopped by to pick up Joe and Bass yet. The screen read 'unknown caller'. That was odd.

"Rizzoli."

"Jane."

Jane nearly collapsed. It was Maura. But she sounded distant… and scared.

"Maura! Maura, talk to me, tell me where you are." Jane gripped the small phone so hard her knuckles were milky white.

The entire bullpen went dead silent. Everyone's eyes turned to Jane and she mouthed to Frost to trace the number calling her cell. He nodded and turned straight to his computer, his fingers flying across the keys.

"Maura? Maura, tell me where you are." Jane could hear Maura crying and then a smack and the crying grew even more distant.

"I'm sorry, Jane, she can't do that. That would be too easy. You have til midnight to find her."

Jane felt as if ice enveloped her entire body. She recognized that voice.

"You _bastard_, you tell me where she is, or so help me God when I find you, you son of a bitch, I'll…"

"You're wasting time Jane. The good doctor's waiting. Tick tock. Tick tock."

The line went dead.

-/-

A/N:: hmmm... will jane be able to find maura in time? who is our kidnapper? and did he kill rebecca and dawn (and dawn's poor parents)? stay tuned...


	24. Jackson Port

DISCLAIMER:: still does not belong to me unfortunately

A/N:: all the reviews are much appreciated, they brighten up my day! i'm trying to keep everyone guessing here... don't want to give away too much just yet. but the clock is ticking and jane has some serious detective work to do. i bringing you another update, quicker than usual, because i unfortunately go back to work tomorrow, vacation's over, and that means more time between updates. but a HUGE thanks to everyone who has stuck by this story. i never expected this kind of a response and it humbles me. much love to all.

-/-

For a single moment, Jane's world froze. She'd been a homicide detective long enough to detect the unspoken threat in the kidnapper's words. Maura would die if they didn't find her by midnight. She watched the clock on the wall as it ticked away precious seconds. They had just over six hours.

"Okay everyone, listen up!" Jane called the attention of everyone in the room, even though she had already had it. "One of our own is being held somewhere in the city and we have until midnight to find her."

She rattled off instructions to various people, giving everybody a job to do; there was no time to waste.

"What can we do?" Frost looked at Jane after she had delegated to everyone in the bullpen but them.

"Did you have any luck with the trace?"

Frost shook his head. "Our perp is smart; he knew exactly how much time he had."

"I was afraid of that. Frost, I need everything on the owner of a diner named Maxine's down on the edge of downtown, near our first vic's apartment. He said his name was Carter, but it might be an alias. He has Maura; he's who called. I want to know everything about him… where he lives, who he knows, everything. This son of a bitch is smart, and he's doing all this just to fuck with me… I wanna know why… what connection he has to me. I think we're not going to find where he's stashed Maura until we figure out what he has against me."

Frost nodded and set off to work.

"What about me?"

Jane motioned for Korsak to follow her out of the busy room and into the hall. Once they were alone, she turned to him, finally letting the desperation she felt show through on her face.

Korsak put a hand on her arm in a comforting gesture. "We'll find her in time Jane; we have everybody on it."

Jane nodded, though the words gave her no comfort. "I need you to do something very important for me Korsak, off the record."

Korsak nodded. "Yeah sure, anything you need."

Jane couldn't believe she was about to ask this, but she couldn't risk not finding Maura in time. "I need you to contact any ties you have with the Irish mob and get me a meeting with Patrick Doyle."

Korsak's eyes went wide. "Patty Doyle… Jane, I…"

"Please Korsak." Jane cut him off. "Just call anyone you know. Tell them to get a message to Patty Doyle saying his daughter is in danger, no details, just say it's urgent."

"Are you sure about this Jane? Do you really want to involve him in this?"

Jane ran a hand across her face and sighed. "I don't think I have any other choice Korsak; he has connections I could only dream of and anyone who has the kind of ties he has always has some kind of ear in the streets. He killed to protect her once; I can only hope he'll work just as hard to protect her now."

Korsak studied her for a moment longer and then left to go do as she asked.

Jane felt a hand grab her shoulder and she whipped around, her fist sailing through the air. She stopped it an inch from Veronica's face. The IA detective was holding up her hands to block as much of the blow as she could.

"Jesus, Rizzoli, jumpy much?"

Jane dropped her hand. "Sorry; I'm just a little on edge."

"I heard about Dr. Isles. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Jane felt an underlying motive that the detective was trying to hide, but she couldn't possibly object to the offer. One more person meant they could cover more ground in the same amount of time.

"I need you to go down to the morgue and check in with Dr. Kim; see if he's gotten any further with the evidence from Maura's house."

She nodded and hurried off, leaving Jane alone in the hall.

With no one else to order around, Jane suddenly felt the helplessness sink in. Maura was out there because of her, because someone wanted to hurt her, to get back at her. How did this world get so twisted that Maura, her precious Maura, seemed to be the one always paying for her crimes?

-/-

"Tell me what you got?" Jane leaned in over Frost's shoulder after he'd called her over upon her return from the hall.

"Our guy wasn't lying about the diner being run by a man named Carter, however, he did lie about who he was. I just got off the phone with the real Carter Bennett, who has been out of town since before our first murder. He left run of the diner to his nephew Jackson Port."

Jane frowned but nodded. "That must be our guy."

Frost nodded before continuing. "According to Mr. Bennett, he hired Jackson right after Jackson's mother, his sister, died from cancer, about a month ago. He said all his sister had told him was that Jackson had been in and out of jail and nobody was giving him any breaks, so he took him on as a favor for his sister."

"Did you pull his record?"

Frost nodded and pulled up the record.

Jane felt sick to her stomach when she saw the face looking back at her. "That's the son of a bitch."

"He's got a long list of priors, starting with a string of B&E and theft charges in New York. He did a stint in Riker's for an assault charge after he broke into an apartment of a young waitress who had called in sick to work. After he got out, he moved to Boston, and it was a whole new city of possibilities. He started to dabble in narcotics on top of continued theft. But he slipped up again, arrested for drug possession and … sexual assault. Apparently he had gotten a little too friendly with one of his dealer's girls and she cried rape."

Jane felt her stomach turn horribly and then her heart stopped beating. This guy had sexually assaulted a woman… and now he had Maura. At the thought of his hands touching her body she had to put all her energy into keeping the contents of her stomach from rising up through her throat. _If he even lays one finger on her, so help me God…_

"With all his priors, a rape charge should have put him away for good."

"Oh, he was going to be there for a good long time. They had him for all his priors and the drug possession. They couldn't make the rape stick… with no DNA evidence it was pretty much a he said she said. But his conviction got overturned."

"What?" Jane took a step back and looked at Frost incredulously. Why on earth would this jackass be allowed back on the streets?

Frost spun his chair around to face her. "His lawyer appealed after the arresting officer was discovered to be dirty."

Jane paled. "Bobby Marino."


	25. Above The Flower Shop

DISCLAIMER:: not now, nor has it ever been, mine

A/N:: new update, yay! i just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story so far; it's been quite a while since chapter one and it helps to know that people are as dedicated to reading this story as i am to writing it. thanks for the support!

-/-

Discovering a connection to the man who had been the indirect cause of her brother's death and the direct reason she almost lost Maura brought her no comfort. She had seen Bobby Marino die in a hail of gunfire and even fired a few shots of her own. There was no way he could have any connection to Maura's kidnapper.

Her mind played her brief phone call with Jackson Port over and over again. She heard the terror in Maura's voice over and over again. Maura was scared, and that made Jane scared. Stereotypes and casual observation might convey that Jane was the strong one, but that was far from the truth. Jane may not ever admit, sometimes not even to herself, that she was frightened, but at the end of a traumatic day, Maura was generally the one coming to her emotional aide. Maura had always been the strong one, always.

She needed Maura here. She needed her to tell her what to do. She needed _her_. Why couldn't this be someone else? Why couldn't Jackson Port take someone else? It was selfish of her to wish for it, she knew, but hadn't she and Maura been through enough? Where was the happily ever after that you read about in fairytales? Where was their sunset to ride off into? Their story couldn't end this way…

"Detective Rizzoli." Veronica approached with Dr. Kim on her heels.

"Did you guys find anything?"

"Dr. Kim and I would like to go back to the crime scene to follow up on a lead."

Jane paled. It turned her stomach to hear Maura's house referred to as 'the crime scene'. "Uh, sure, some officers are still there, just check in with them."

Veronica shook her head. "No, not that crime scene. We'd like to go back to Rebecca Dalton's apartment."

Dr. Kim chose this moment to break his silence. "I found some evidence from Maura's case that might connect our kidnapper to the murder of our first victim. I need to go back just to make sure."

Jane had a choice. If she said no, it would seem selfish, and she wasn't going to lie, she'd be doing it for selfish reasons. But if she said yes, that was two less people dedicating their time to finding Maura. She looked at the clock. They'd already lost one hour.

"Okay, you can go, but make it as quick as possible. Dr. Isles is our priority, and I'm just hoping anything we do to catch this asshole will help us find where he stashed her."

Veronica and Lucas nodded and headed off quickly.

Jane sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"Jane."

She looked over to see Korsak motioning to her from the door.

Happy for anything productive to do, she headed over and joined him.

"I called around like you asked me to, and it wasn't easy, but I think I got someone who can set you up with a meeting. He said he'd get back to me when he found someone who could get ahold of Doyle."

"Thanks Korsak. In the meantime can you help Frost? We're losing time and he can't seem to find any part of the city that Jackson Port is more connected to than any other."

Korsak nodded and went back into the bullpen.

Jane sighed. Now it was time to go get the evidence collected from Bobby Marino's apartment. It was a desperate move, but with lack of any other lead, it's all she had. But first, one stop.

The morgue was different than it had been a couple short months ago. All traces of Maura seemed to be erased in her long absence from work, replaced with evidence of Dr. Kim. He was much messier than she was, his jacket was on the floor by his desk, papers were littered everywhere there was free space. Still, she couldn't help but feel a rush of sorrow. She had so many memories in this room, memories with Maura.

She felt them before she heard or saw them. It was a presence that sent the small hairs on the back of her neck into full alert. They were trying to be quiet, and they were. She didn't hear their footsteps, or the rise and fall of their chests as they breathed. She knew they were there, but she let them think she didn't. She was calm; she had expected this.

When they grabbed her, it was more rough than she had anticipated it would be. They weren't gentle as they threw some sort of cover over her face. The fabric was breathable and it was made easier by the fact that she wasn't outwardly panicking. One of the men pinned her hands behind her back. A kick to the back of her feet and a slight pressure on her back told her to move, though neither of them vocalized the order.

She let them lead her away.

-/-

They were in a car of some sort and at least six miles from headquarters before the cover was removed and she could see. She was in the back of a van, the two men who'd taken her sitting on either side of her, with a woman in the driver's seat.

The woman met her gaze in the rearview mirror and Jane's breath caught. Her eyes were almost identical to Maura's. They were a much brighter green, but in every other aspect they were exactly the same. It struck a painful chord in Jane's heart and she glanced away.

They headed farther and farther away from downtown, but Jane wasn't apprehensive. She knew there was no way, with all the enemies he had, that Patty Doyle would just have some casual meeting with her out in public. He wasn't stupid; he knew that more than one person in the irish-mob and probably a few who weren't wanted to get their hands on him.

They stopped in front of a florist. That surprised Jane, but she guessed the less conspicuous the better.

The girl opened her door and got out, opening the side door and motioning to Jane. "C'mon darlin'." Her accent was thick and most definitely Irish.

Jane slipped past the man between her and the door. She stepped out into the nighttime air and followed the girl to the door of the florist shop. The windows were dark and the sign by the door informed them that the shop was currently closed. The woman opened the door and led Jane inside, closing and locking it behind them.

She walked to the back of the shop to a door behind the counter and opened it to reveal a set of stairs. She indicated Jane should go up first and followed directly behind her. At the top of the staircase was another door.

The girl put a hand on Jane's arm when the detective reached for the knob. She knocked twice and then opened the door. Her hand fell away from Jane's arm and Jane stepped across the threshold of the small apartment.

There, sitting on the couch opposite the door, was Patty Doyle.

"You certainly know how to get a man's attention, Detective."


	26. Connections

DISCLAIMER:: not mine unfortunately

A/N:: this is one of my favorite chapters and it took quite a while to write, because i wanted to make a good friction between patty doyle and jane. i know everyone has been waiting for this, so i will spare you all further torment. enjoy!

-/-

Jane crossed the room slowly, her soles making a slight clicking noise on the hardwood floor. She finally stopped next to a small window to the left of the couch.

"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?"

Jane didn't look over at Patty Doyle; she couldn't. "Your daughter is missing. She was taken just over two and a half hours ago."

She had expected Patrick Doyle's first response to be rage, anger… that's what hers had been. But he was surprisingly calm when he spoke.

"Who took her?"

"A man named Jackson Port. He's a criminal from New York, mostly theft, but more recently narcotics and sexual assault."

That got more of a reaction out of him. She heard his knuckles crack as his fists balled up.

"He's given the department until midnight to find her. He hasn't given explicit detail on what he intends to do to her or… _with her _if we don't make his time limit but I think the, uh, implications are clear enough."

"And what do you expect us to do about it?" The woman took a step away from the wall by the door, where she'd been lurking since they came in.

"Erin, enough!"

The woman's mouth closed immediately, but the tension rolled off of her in waves.

Patrick Doyle sighed. "You'll have to excuse her; she's in her twenties and Irish, the perfect combination for a short temper."

Jane glanced over at the young woman. She was beautiful. Her hair was black, wavy, and long, the darkness of it making her bright green eyes pop all the more. She was as tall as Jane, but obviously younger, though there was an accelerated age in her eyes. Jane recognized it because she had the same look in her own, the traces of a life in which you've seen too much of the bad side of humanity. Erin was silent through Jane's observation of her, almost daring the detective to address her. But Jane just turned back towards the window. She couldn't look at those eyes anymore.

"She's your daughter. I know it's bold of me to ask you this, but I have nowhere else to turn. We're down to just over four hours and we're not making any real progress towards finding her." Jane took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out.

"This can't possibly be easy for you Detective."

Jane laughed, but it was mirthless and hollow. "What gave you that idea?"

"Your shoulders are tense, your overall posture is rigid, your words are strained and you haven't looked at me since you walked through the door. I've killed people. I've done things you couldn't even imagine. I am a criminal; I have been my entire life. You've devoted yours to stopping people like me. There's a undeniable irony in our meeting."

"If I had other options; I'd use them. She took a bullet for me once and it's my responsibility to protect her and I'm going to exhaust every possible resource… that includes you."

Patrick Doyle took a what seemed like an eternity to speak. "I know who you are Detective Rizzoli, and I know your connection to my daughter."

She scoffed. "And what connection might that be?"

"I think you know."

Jane turned away from the window but didn't look at him, anger seeping into her pores at the hint of disapproval she heard in his voice. "Please don't give me any of that moral superiority bullshit, because you'd be wasting my time, and hers."

"Ay, it's true I grew up in an Irish-Catholic household and certain moral codes were taught to me from a young age, but I'm not exactly in a position to pass moral judgment, don't you agree? If Maura is happy, then I'm happy for her. I made sure her life was separate from all this for that very reason. Her happiness."

"And yet, somehow, she still found her way back to this world."

"Ay, that she did, but she found her way to the right side of it."

Jane couldn't argue with that. Maura was one of the most caring people she knew; criminal wasn't a word you could easily associate with her.

He stood. "I'll help you Detective Rizzoli. I have ways of finding out what I need to know. If this guy's keeping Maura somewhere in the city, we'll find her."

The idea hadn't even occurred to Jane… that Maura might not even be in the city. Panic swept through her system for a brief moment before she pushed the thought away. Jackson had called her less than an hour after he'd taken Maura, there was no way they could have made it out of Boston to some secure location. She was still in the city, Jane could feel it.

"Thank you." She finally let her eyes meet Patrick Doyle's for the first time since she arrived. She found she had a connection with this man whether she liked it or not. There may be a million differences, male/female, criminal/cop, but there was one thing they had in common: Maura was the center of both their lives, and that fact bonded them as tightly as blood.

"Let's save the thanks for when we have her back safe."

-/-

"Where'd you disappear to?" Frost looked up from his computer as she strolled into the bullpen, carrying a large box. She set it down on her desk and lifted the lid off.

"I picked up the evidence collected from Bobby Marino's apartment. I know it's a long shot, but I have to find out if there was some connection besides him being the arresting officer. Maybe, I don't know, maybe Port was his right hand man and he double crossed him. You should have seen how quick he was to kill his partner the day of the shooting and then Danny… I definitely would not put it past him.

"Do you think Jackson maybe has her in Charlestown? With his history of drugs, it might be a good place to search." Korsak looked up from his desk.

"That occurred to me too. I have Monroe, Young, Jeffries and Archer covering every inch of space over there, sweeping from one side to the other."

Jane reached into the box and started removing everything onto her desk piece by piece, examining as she went. Bobby's apartment had been sparse, the place of a bachelor who didn't intend on ever being something more. There was nothing but a couch in his living room, nothing in his fridge or cupboards. It was almost as if he wasn't there too often. It wasn't until they got to the bedroom that they found any sign of life. The bed was king sized, the favorite choice of couples (or those who liked to hog the bed) and made with silk sheets. There was a dresser and closet filled with clothes, some male, some female. On the top shelf of the closet they found a box. Inside were photographs and what appeared to be notebooks. These were the items that now resided in the evidence box on Jane's desk.

She opened the first notebook to find it wasn't a notebook at all, but a ledger, recording his incoming cash finances. She ran her finger down the page. "Bobby Marino was in deep; he made a lot of money, but…" Jane pulled out another notebook that opened up to find his outgoing expenses. "He spent most of what he was bringing in. He definitely wasn't wasting anything but rent on his apartment, no furniture or anything like that. So where was all his money going?"

Frost opened his mouth to offer a suggestion but Jane's phone went off, interrupting them.

She pulled it out of her pocket, just as it went off again. She looked at the screen: one new message. She opened it and nearly dropped the phone.

The words themselves were ominous. _Since you're taking your time, maybe we should add two more players to the game. _She scrolled down to find a picture of a slightly opened door through which she could see Dr. Lucas Kim and Veronica Hepburn crouched, pointing at something on a rug. Below that was more words. _Your move Detective._


	27. Quiet Observation

DISCLAIMER:: still not mine

A/N:: another update. yay! it's my gift to you guys for sticking with me through 27 chapters... and we're not even done yet. i will be going out of town tomorrow and i work monday, so an update on tuesday? i think so. enjoy!

-/-

By the time Jane and Korsak reached Rebecca Dalton's apartment it was already too late. Jackson Port had come and gone and once again left misery in his wake.

The door wasn't busted open, Veronica and Luke had left it open when they came in, as Jane had seen in the photo. Inside, there was definite evidence of a struggle. The murder of Rebecca Dalton had been clean, a surprise. The only mess had been the blood pool from the wound on her throat. Now, everything was torn apart. The coffee table was knocked over, the pillows from the couch were scattered on the floor, one ripped open. There were impact marks on several spots of wall.

Korsak forged ahead, gun drawn while Jane continued to survey the damage.

"Jane!"

Jane ran forward, gun still drawn, following Korsak's voice to the back hallway and down to an open door. She saw the blood trail as she walked down carefully against the wall. It was thin, not pooled, as if painted across the floor with a paint brush, evidence of a body being dragged.

Inside was the bathroom, and leaned up against the tub was the crumpled body of Dr. Lucas Kim.

Korsak had his fingers pressed to the younger man's pulse point. "It's faint, but it's there."

Jane didn't waste anytime getting on her phone. "This is Rizzoli. I need a bus to 245 Kilby. Now!"

-/-

Frost had stayed behind at his partner's request. She wanted him to try once again to trace the phone that had sent her the picture message. However, the signal put Jackson in the vicinity of Rebecca Dalton's apartment, where it stayed, making it increasingly evident that he'd ditched the phone.

He still called Jane with the heads up to search the apartment for the phone while she was there. It might hold some clues as to where they might find Dr. Isles.

He had resumed Jane's work on Bobby Marino's ledgers and had been able to decipher some of where the money had been going. Apparently Bobby had been making rent payments to another apartment under an assumed name. He paid in cash on time every month but that was all the landlord could tell Frost when the detective got him on the phone. That and he lived there with a woman, who as far as the landlord knew, still resided there… at least the rent was still being paid.

Frost was just about to call Jane when the female detective beat him to it.

"Frost."

"We found Dr. Kim. He's nearly dead Frost."

Frost felt a tightness in his chest. He'd known Luke only several weeks, but in that time they had become friends.

"Frost?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"The EMTs are loading him up right now. I need you to meet the ambulance at Mass Gen. See if you can get anything out of him."

Frost hung up without saying goodbye. He raced out of the bullpen. If he got there before the ambulance, he may just be able to talk to Luke before he was whisked away into the ER.

Luck was on his side and he beat the ambulance with moments to spare. When the bay doors opened and they pulled out the stretcher, Barry felt the all too familiar churn of his stomach. He'd never been good with blood; the very sight of it was enough to make him lose his lunch. But he breathed deeply and willed himself to stay calm. Jane had entrusted him with this mission and he wasn't about to lose the opportunity to impress her. He hated the fact that she still preferred Korsak's expertise to his own and trusted Korsak more with having her back. Every opportunity that arose for him to prove that he could run with the big dogs was one he was going to take.

"Luke."

He held up his badge when some of the doctors tried to usher him away.

The doctor rolled his beaten face in the direction of Frost's voice and mumbled something. Blood spilled from his lips, making anything he said impossible to decipher.

"Stop! This might be pertinent to our case!"

The doctors and nurses all narrowed their eyes but granted him one moment there in the hallway. He leaned down close to the injured doctor's barely recognizable face.

"He's…still…" More blood.

"We need to get him to an OR detective." One doctor impatiently made a reach to once again push the gurney.

"Wait! What is it Luke?"

"Still in… still in apartment. Still there… with… help… Veronica" Again he coughed up some blood, but this time the doctor took action and shoved Frost out of the way, leaving him standing trembling in the hallway.

He had to tell Jane! She was in danger!

-/-

Jane felt sick to her stomach as she followed the blood trail from the bathroom back to its origin.

"In the picture, they were here." She pointed to the spot she had seen Veronica and Luke crouching to observe something on the floor. She didn't see anything there now, but that didn't mean there hadn't been something there that Jackson had taken. "But the blood trail ends here, behind the couch."

"He must have surprised them." Korsak studied the ground by where Jane had originally pointed. "There's no blood here. Do you think they ran?"

"Veronica doesn't seem like the type to run. I think she took a stand. The impact marks on the wall are conclusive of the perp swinging something heavy, missing, and hitting the wall. Luke might have taken refuge here, behind the couch, or quite possibly he was trying to get around the back and get a grip on the perp."

They both searched the living room high and low, looking for any evidence while the crime lab cronies were still on their way.

Finally, they struck gold. Korsak lifted a gloved hand. In it was the phone.

Jane rushed over and snatched it into her own gloved hands as if it was her very breath. "We have to get this back to Frost."

-/-

Down the hall, a shadowy figure closed the bedroom door with an imperceptible click. The shadow didn't bother to take the bloody semen covered sheets, they already knew his identity. The figure went to the open bedroom window and climbed out onto the fire escape, going down to the waiting car in the alleyway.


	28. A Picture's Worth A Thousand Questions

DISCLAIMER:: unfortunately i do not own rizzoli or isles or any of the other characters affliated with the show

A/N:: here's a long update for my loyal readers. i have man busy days ahead and will not be able to even look at this laptop before next wednesday. so since the next update is at least a week away, i figured i'd leave you with a little more than usual. starting next chapter i will include the time so you all can know how close we're getting to the deadline. jane is a lot closer than she thinks, if she'd just take a step back and put all the pieces together, but such is a flaw of the human condition... we rarely see what's right in front of our faces. enjoy and review.

-/-

"We need to search the rest of the apartment. You take the kitchen; I'll get the bedroom."

Korsak nodded and disappeared down the front hallway to the kitchen. Jane turned, drawing her gun again and heading back down the hallway towards the bedroom. Normally protocol dictates you clear the entire apartment first, but Luke couldn't wait. They'd had to put pressure on several wounds just to keep him from bleeding out before the ambulance arrived.

Jane knew they wouldn't find Veronica in the apartment. No, she'd been taken, just as Maura had been. Take the women, dispose of the men.

Just as she opened the door she heard the engine of a car roar loudly. The window was open and it only took Jane a second to realize what had happened. The bastard had been there the whole time. She crossed the room as the car took off, leaning out, trying to memorize as much as she could. She called it in "This is Rizzoli. I need a BOLO on a black SUV, license plate beginning with 5JNV, heading east on Kilby."

"Jane." There was panic in Korsak's voice as she whipped around to face him. She followed his gaze to the bed.

Blood covered the sheets as well as a sticky substance that made her stomach turn sour.

"He was in the apartment the whole fucking time; he was right under our nose. And we were just too distracted to see it."

"But why risk it?" Korsak's brow furrowed, any possible reasoning lost on him.

Jane frowned in concentration, going over possible motives in her head. "He could have been getting some sick thrill out of it, knew we'd be distracted enough that he could watch us freak. He knew the car was outside in the alley, that could have given him a feeling of security. Or, more likely, he wanted to assess how many we brought with us. He wouldn't want to drive out of an alley if there were cops sitting in a cruiser out front, waiting for you and me to radio back up or something."

Her phone went off. "Rizzoli." She didn't even bother to look at the screen, knowing exactly who it'd be.

"He's in the apartment Jane! He's still there!"

"We almost had him Frost, but he slipped out a second before we found him."

"What about Veronica?"

Jane frowned. "Alive or dead, he took her with him."

-/-

Jane never frequented the crime lab. It wasn't generally her scene. All the techs down there talked in chemical compositions and… well, basically the way Maura talked and one walking Wikipedia was already enough for her to handle. So she had always used Maura as the middle man. The crime scene techs talked to the ME because she spoke their language so well and then Maura turned around and relayed the facts back to Jane in English. Jane liked their arrangement. But, in light of the current situation, Jane found herself smack dab in the middle of the Boston crime lab, talking to a woman who looked far too young to be a DNA and forensics expert.

"We collected DNA samples from three different donors on the sheet. The semen was a positive DNA match to Jackson Port. Most of the blood belonged to Detective Hepburn. There were small samples belonging to Dr. Maura Isles. But they were slightly deluded. What we were able to surmise is that our perp had some of Dr. Isles' blood on his body from his earlier assault. When he was assaulting Detective Hepburn on the bed, he most likely perspired and the blood/sweat combination fell onto the sheets."

"Was there enough blood on the sheets to be fatal?"

The tech shook her head. "Not by itself. The blood samples from the living room, hallway, and bathroom all came back to Dr. Kim. So she was definitely attacked only in the bedroom. The top sheet was missing from the bed. The amount of blood is consistent with a large gash or a stabbing. It's possible Port used the top sheet to secure her wound before taking her down the fire escape to the car. There was no blood whatsoever outside the window or anywhere on the fire escape or the alley below."

"Is there any other evidence to suggest where he'd been or where he's going to?"

"Actually, now that you mention it, we did find hairs on the bed that weren't human."

"What do you mean they weren't human? What were they?"

"Canine. We're still trying to narrow down the specific breed, but wherever he was before Rebecca Dalton's apartment, he came into contact with a dog."

Jane nodded. "Thanks. Call me if you find anything else."

-/-

"Frost! Please tell me you've got something from the phone."

Frost frowned. "I do, actually, but you're not going to like it."

Jane felt her heart sinking. She hadn't liked anything she'd seen or heard since she'd come in to work. How could it be that just a few short hours before she had been with Maura, holding her, touching her. She couldn't imagine going through life not being able to do that ever again. She had been watching the clock feeling as if it was ticking away the seconds of Maura's life, and hence, her own. She had almost lost the ME once and the wound from that was still too fresh and raw. She'd barely had time to heal and now… now she might lose her again. Maura had saved her once and now it was her turn. So why was she failing so miserably?

Frost saw the private war raging inside his partner and stayed quiet. She was going to be inconsolable until the doc was back safe and sound and Jackson Port was behind bars. Nothing he said would change that.

"Just show me what you got."

Frost turned to his computer. "I wasn't able to locate any sort of tracking history. Somehow he messed with the GPS chip. But I was able to pull these out of the delete history." Frost turned and met Jane's eyes. "Are you sure you can handle this?"

Jane felt like a little girl in his gaze and she hated that feeling. She'd requested a new partner after Korsak had seen her weakness at the hands of Hoyt. She didn't want people seeing her vulnerable side even once, because they tended to see nothing else but from that point on. "Just do it."

Frost hesitated only a moment before nodding and turning back to the screen. He brought up the first picture. It was of Maura. Jane felt her knees go weak and she had to grip the back of Frost's chair to keep from falling. She looked scared. She was in the back of a car, blindfolded, her hands secured behind her back. A gash spread across her neck, a deep nasty thing, streaks of dried blood trailing down from it to where they had soaked into the top of her shirt, or rather, one of Jane's old academy shirts.

"Are there more?"

Frost didn't respond verbally. He pressed a few keys and a new photo came up. This one was also of Maura and much worse than the first. Jane had to pull over a chair and sit down; she was afraid her legs would give out if she remained standing.

Maura was still blindfolded, but she was in a chair in a black room now. Her pants had been removed but she was still wearing Jane's academy shirt. The gash across her throat was already starting to scab over. There were fresh gashes on her legs, torture wounds, nothing more. Bruises covered her arms.

"Is there any background you can pull? Anything that might give us a clue as to where she is?"

Frost shook his head. "He laid down a black sheet to cover any surrounding areas of the room. He's smart… for a psychopath."

"Most psychopaths are." Jane felt the scars on her hands, her own burning reminder of that fact. "Maybe he's keeping her in a place that we'd easily recognize, someplace we know."

Frost shook his head. "It's unlikely. We've had units covering all Maura's typical places and any place we've found in conjunction with Jackson Port."

"Do you know why he took the pictures?"

"That's the bad news… They were in his sent folder before they were deleted."

"So he sent them to another phone?"

Frost nodded.

"That doesn't make any sense."

Frost looked at Jane with a combination of sympathy and fear. "We have to consider the possibility that maybe he's not working alone."

Jane ignored the comment. She couldn't even fathom that. "Were you able to trace the phone he sent them to?"

Frost shook his head. "Prepaid cell."

Jane was about to respond when someone cleared their throat.

She and Barry both looked up to see a dark haired young woman standing a few feet away.

Frost's eyes instantly grew wide and Jane saw a slight blush creep into his neck before her partner got a grip on his emotions.

Jane was about to address her but Frost stood up. "May I help you ma'am?"

Jane had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from letting out a chuckle despite her shitty mood. He actually liked her, and he was doing a terrible job of hiding it.

"Actually, I'm here to speak to Detective Rizzoli, but thank you."

Frost got even more of a blush in his cheeks at her accent.

Jane stood and pushed him back down into his chair. "Would you stop drooling Frost? You're making me look bad."

She walked with Erin out into the hallway. It surprised her that Erin would risk making an actual appearance, especially at headquarters.

"We've kept our ears open and called some contacts around town. We haven't been able to find where he's hiding her, but we have a lead that might help. He has a girlfriend and we have her address. PD wanted to go himself but I convinced him you could handle it." She pushed a piece of paper into Jane's hand. "I hope I didn't make the wrong choice."

With that Erin turned and disappeared.

Jane returned to the bullpen, grabbing her coat. "C'mon Frost, I have the address for Jackson's girlfriend."

"How did…"

Jane held up a hand. "The less you know, the better."

Frost nodded. He knew better than to push.

-/-

They were in the car in record time. As he slid behind the wheel, Frost asked for the address. Jane read it off to him and Frost frowned.

"What?" Jane looked at him, her brow furrowed. "You know the place?"

Frost nodded. "I think I just found our connection."

"What connection? Frost, what's going on?"

"That address is the same address of Bobby Marino's other apartment… the one he shared with his girlfriend."

As Jane felt the pieces slowly starting to become more and more clear, the digital clock on the dash flipped to 10:16.


	29. Obsession

DISCLAIMER:: does not belong to me unfortunately

A/N:: so, here's another update. btw, i gather inspiration for this twisted individual from a combination of three case studies in my psychology class. well them and the crazy man who lives down the road from my parent's country house. i just want to put that out there, because however weird and twisty i may be, i don't exactly spend my life thinking, 'what would serial killers do?'; that would just be exceedingly unhealthy for my boy. anyways, an hour and a half left... will jane make it in time?

-/-

**10:32pm**

Jane and Frost nearly bolted out of the car when they arrived at their destination. This was the first solid lead they had and their time was still ticking away.

They had called ahead to the landlord from the cruiser warning him of their arrival. A short, thick, angry-looking man was waiting for them by the front door of the building, his hair unkempt and his sweater vest and trousers wrinkled as if they'd already been worn.

"Do you mind telling me what's so gosh darn important that you have to drag a poor old man outta bed at all hours of the night?" He glared at Jane as she approached.

"I'm sorry sir but we need to be let into apartment 2G."

"And what would I do that for?"

"The tenant in that apartment is in a relationship with a criminal currently holding two law enforcement officials hostage." Okay, so that was a small lie. Technically Maura wasn't law enforcement, but how would this guy know? "We could come back with a warrant but that would take precious time these women don't have."

This seemed to wake the guy up. He nodded. "Follow me."

Jane and Frost followed him up a flight of stairs and down two hallways, stopping in front of the very last door at the end of the second.

"This is it."

Jane nodded and knocked on the door. "BPD. Open up."

Frost pulled a photo of Jackson Port from his jacket and flashed it to the landlord. "Do you recognize this man?"

The man reached into the pocket of his trousers and produced a pair of reading glasses. He slipped them on and gingerly took the photo, glancing it over. "Sure do. The young lady who lives here meets him downstairs every once in a while. She told me he was her brother."

"Did she ever invite him up?"

He shook his head. "Never that I saw."

Frost frowned. Jackson Port didn't have any siblings; he'd checked the criminal's background himself. And if she was his girlfriend, why wouldn't she let him in her apartment?

"Screw this." Jane frowned after her fifth time knocking. "Open it."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Not without a warrant."

Jane had anticipated this, but there was no time for warrants. Maura had no time.

"You can open the door or I can kick it in. Either way, I'm getting in that apartment."

The old man studied Jane for a moment and then looked back over a Frost. "She's scary."

"You have no idea." Frost whispered for only the landlord to hear.

"So what's it gonna be?"

The old man grumbled as he removed a ring of keys from his pocket. He flipped to a small gold one that looked identical to all the others and stuck it in the keyhole. The trio her the lock click open and he opened the door. He motioned for Jane to lead the way.

The apartment was big, but cozy. Unlike the other place Bobby Marino had called home, this place was furnished lavishly. The couch sat on a ornate rug. There were bookshelves filled with hundreds of titles, artwork covered the walls. The kitchen was immediately to Jane's right. She saw dishes in the sink, evidence of dinner eaten alone. She walked over to the fridge and opened it. The shelves were well stocked, as were the cupboards when she checked them. She led the way down the hallway to the left of the door. They hit the bathroom first. Upon opening the medicine cabinet she found tampons, midol, and all the normal necessities of a woman. But what surprised her were the prescription drugs. Or at least she assumed they were prescription. The labels themselves had been ripped away, but whoever had disposed of them had written what each bottle contained in permanent marker on the lid.

"Whoever this woman is, she's taking several anti-depressants and anti-psychotics." Jane held up a few of the bottles for emphasis before putting them back and closing the medicine cabinet.

Down the hall there were two more closed doors, bedrooms according to the landlord. In the first, they found the typical furnishings. There was a vanity to the right of the door, makeup strewn across the top. The bed was unmade on one side, but the sheets, like in the other apartment, were high quality. She opened the top drawer of the dresser and was met with an assortment of lacy lingerie. More artwork adorned the walls, though this seemed a little more personal somehow than the pieces in the living room. Inside the closet they found dress clothes, making it evident that she had a respectable job and countless pairs of shoes arranged in rows on the floor of the small space.

So far their search had been fruitless, no photographs, no names, nothing that could identify the woman who lived here.

But Jane found exactly what she was looking for when she opened the door to the second room. The room radiated anger and hatred. On the far wall was a shrine to Bobby Marino. Photos of him were everywhere. A makeshift altar was set up below them with candles and a few of his possessions.

Jane walked over to the altar and studied the pictures of Bobby. They were mostly personal photographs with the faces of any others either cut out completely or scratched out angrily with red and black markers.

"Jane, I think you should see this."

Jane walked over to meet Frost at the adjoining wall. The photographs here were devoted to another individual… herself. This woman had stalked her, learned her habits, known her routines. It took everything she had in her not to call Korsak and tell him to make sure Hoyt was still behind bars. This wasn't Hoyt… this anger, this rage was not something he felt towards her. This was someone else's hate. She moved to the next wall to the right. Maura was everywhere here. Her address was written in marker alongside of a photograph of her exiting her house. There were countless pictures of her unconscious in the hospital.

Notes were scrawled in between photographs on all three walls, little notes about schedules and addresses to places like the Dirty Robber. But only one stuck out to Jane, a message in all caps near the light switch. _HURT THE DOCTOR, HURT HER._


	30. Murder Board Revelations

DISCLAIMER:: not mine and all that jazz

A/N:: sorry this took super long. it's been written for almost two weeks now, just have been super busy. but thanks to some inspiration from various music and my son's new found belief that sleep is fun... i have been like a factory and have a few updates in line to post as well as the first few chapters of a csi:ny fic that i'm thinking about posting. THANK YOU to everyone for reviewing; i appreciate it immensely. and a special thank you to all my new readers/reviewers. it's always good to hear from everyone. and don't worry, next chapter is all Maura's pov, and the longest chapter in the fic so far and i'll have that up in a few days. much love to everyone. enjoy!

-/-

**10:58pm**

The crime scene techs were working their magic on the back room, lifting prints and taking pictures of every inch while Jane was going through boxes that they had found in the closet of the bedroom/shrine. Normally, she would have waited until it had all gone back and been processed before she rifled through it herself, but there was no time, and this whole thing was anything but normal.

"Can I help?"

Jane looked up at Korsak.

She motioned for him to take the seat next to her on the couch.

"What are we looking for?"

Jane frowned. "Anything that will give us a clue as to this crazy bitch's identity."

"Jane…" Korsak started to reach a hand toward her shoulder in comfort but she shrugged him off.

"Jackson Port took Maura because of me Korsak. And this bitch had something to do with it. They took her because they knew it was the fastest way to get to me. This has all been about fucking with my head."

"We are going to find her Jane."

"In an hour?" Jane stood up before he could say anything reassuring in response. "I'm going to take all this back to the precinct and sort it out there. Frost is checking with the neighbors, seeing if any of them can identify our mystery tenant. When he gets back can one of you go over and check on Dr. Kim?"

She didn't wait for an answer, just grabbed a couple of the boxes and motioned for a uniform to grab the others.

-/-

**11:28pm**

Jane had set up a murder board in the bullpen. In the center was Jackson Port's mug shot circled.

"He knew the first victim, Rebecca Dalton from working at the diner. That would explain why there were no signs of forced entry at the original crime scene; she knew him. But what was his motive? And why kill Dawn and her family? What threat did they pose to him? Dawn had seen him when she'd accompanied Rebecca to the diner, but how could she have known that he might have killed her? Dawn was a rush job, sloppy; her death was obviously meant to keep her silent. But why? What did she know?"

She put a question mark next to the photo of Dawn and moved back over to the one of Rebecca.

"Rebecca was in a relationship with Samantha Pringle until she met Veronica at the hospital."

She looked at the line that connected Jackson Port's photo to Rebecca Dalton.

"It couldn't have been a lover's quarrel. Rebecca was openly gay and Jackson knew that. But killing her was planned… and he carved my name into her chest."

Jane had a hard time believing Rebecca Dalton was murdered solely to send her a message. She eyed a third line drawn from Jackson's photo to the empty spot where the mystery woman should be. Bobby Marino's girlfriend. Bobby Marino's slightly obsessed girlfriend. She was the one who was holding the grudge against Jane. Jackson Port shouldn't be the center of this, she should.

"She's pulling the strings. That's why he sent those photos of Maura… he was sending her confirmation that he'd taken her. He's the puppet."

Jane walked over to her desk where there were a mess of files on each of the murders, in addition to Bobby Marino. She'd searched Bobby's file and Jackson Port's criminal history thoroughly to try to find some connection prior to Jackson's arrest. There was nothing.

"How in the hell did Jackson and Bobby Marino's girlfriend cross paths? And why would he help her?"

"Love."

Jane nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked up and met the eyes of Erin.

"What are you, like, an Irish mob liaison?"

Erin smiled. "Something like that. PD can't exactly show his face 'round here."

"Please tell me you have come to save the day?"

Erin walked over to the murder board. "I'm here to help." She looked over her shoulder at Jane. "We're getting anxious. Whoever's behind this… they aren't the street type. Everyone we've heard from who knows anything about Jackson Port says he's not the scheming kind, that he couldn't think this all up on his own."

Jane joined Erin in surveying the board.

"What if we're focusing too much on the murders? Maybe they were meant to distract you. Think about it." Erin pointed to the spot where Bobby's girlfriend's picture was absent. "She holds you responsible for Bobby's death. She uses information from her boyfriend's old cases, finds one of his priors who has been recently released."

Jane smiled as she caught the Irish woman's train of thought. "She turns on the charm… woos him. Someone with nothing left to lose to do her dirty work for her."

Erin nodded. "Maybe the first murder was just a test, to see how far he'd really go for her."

"Rebecca was Maura's nurse. They've been putting the heat on Maura this whole time, distracting me with her. That was the point of taking her." Jane could feel excitement growing in her stomach, the return of hope filling every pore. This wasn't over yet. "They wanted me to focus on Maura. But it's me. This is about me; it always has been. Maura, Jackson, they're just pieces in the game… it's me and her who are actually playing it."

Erin sat by and watched as color returned to the detective's cheeks and she seemed to come alive. "What are you saying?"

Jane turned to Erin, almost having forgotten she was there. "I've had cops checking all the places Jackson Port frequented, and all Maura's hang outs too. But that's exactly what she wanted me to do. She wanted me to waste my resources looking in all the wrong places. But this game isn't about hiding Maura from me."

Erin raised an eyebrow. "What is it about then?"

"It's about hurting me. She wants to destroy me, break me. And what better way to do that then to take the one person I care most about and put her in the most obvious place in the world and I still don't find her in time?"

Erin smiled. "You know where she is?"

Jane grabbed her gun off her desk and holstered it. "I know exactly where she is."

Erin fell into pace beside Jane as they left the bullpen to rescue Maura and Veronica.

-/-

**11:56pm**

Jane stared at a door she'd seen millions of times. Erin was pressed tightly against her side and she felt the hurried rise and fall of the younger woman's chest. She looked over and met her eyes and the look in them only strengthened her resolve. She spent the entire ride over trying to convince the young woman with Maura's eyes to stay in the car and call in for backup should the need arise. But Erin had been adamant that she not go alone, just in case this last stitch effort actually panned out.

"I'll go in first. Stay back until I give the all clear."

Erin nodded and finally stepped away from Jane and back into the shadow of the hallway.

Jane stepped forward and tried the knob. There was no resistance; the door was unlocked. She pushed it open, her gun drawn.

Her eyes grew wide when she saw blood on the floor, drops trailing into the room, stopping at a chair with a limp body sitting on it. Veronica.

She swung to the left and then the right, stepping in, her firearm still raised. She slowly made her way over to the body, going slowly and keeping alert to every scrap of sound and movement. When she reached the bloody woman in the chair, she reached down and put her fingers to the woman's pulse point. She was still alive.

"Jane!" She turned whipped around to see Erin running through the door seconds before she felt a sharp pain and everything went black.


	31. Pulling The Strings

DISCLAIMER:: not mine.

A/N:: had an awful night at work and felt like spreading a little joy despite my foul mood. why do i volunteer to go in on my days off? i think i will never know. this chapter is Maura POV and my longest chapter yet. i hope everyone enjoys it; it was extremely difficult to write. more updates coming soon.

-/-

**Six hours ago**

Maura woke up to a dark room. She reached across the bed, her hands searching for a certain tall detective she already suspected wasn't there. She had known Jane would return to work, but a small feeling of sadness and abandonment twisted in her gut at having woken up alone.

She stretched as she stood, opening a dresser drawer and grabbing a pair of sweats and one of Jane's old t-shirts from her police academy days. It was worn thin and there were several small holes at various spots on the hem, but it had a smell that was so distinctly Jane, and all she wanted was to surround herself with the detective.

She saw the small piece of paper as she was pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail. She picked it up, smiling.

_M-_

_I didn't want to wake you. I just have to go in and follow up on that lead. I'll probably be home before you wake. And then we'll talk, about us, about everything. I love you so much, and I miss you already. Get some rest. I'll see you soon._

_Jane_

Maura smiled. She could definitely handle doing this for days, weeks, maybe even years to come. Jane Rizzoli made her happier than she could ever remember being. She folded the note and tucked it into the pocket of her sweats.

She practically skipped down the stairs. Maura had never let herself dream about the future before. At least not in regards to relationships. She was aware of the practical side of relationships, serotonin levels and endorphins and she'd lived her life by them. Love was fleeting and impractical. But now… with Jane… it was the first time she'd ever let herself dream of forever.

Coffee sounded good. It was the only way she'd be able to stay awake until Jane got home from work. And she wanted to be awake to see her best friend and lover come through that door, to tell her how much she missed her, even in the brief couple hours they'd been apart.

Maura had never had the instincts of a detective. Her skills were utilized mostly after victims were already present. She didn't live her life cautiously like Jane did, didn't stay in tune to every little creak of a floorboard. Maybe that's why she never heard him.

She reached for the cabinet with her favorite coffee mug. She saw him an instant before his arms would have closed around her in the reflection of a stainless steel travel mug. Thankful for her flexibility she ducked out of his range and put the island between them before he could make another grab for her.

He wasn't a particularly handsome man, but nor was he bad looking. He was someone who blended well into a crowd, someone you wouldn't suspect and Maura knew he probably used that to his advantage.

Her hand found a drawer behind her as he made his advance, his eyes steady. She was no psychologist and hardly qualified to make any assumptions let alone ones of a psychological nature, but he seemed almost like he was a soldier following orders. Her hand slipped into the drawer and closed around the first thing it touched. As he neared her she pulled it free and swung at him, heavily grazing his shoulder.

He swung, knocking the knife out of her hand. She heard it slide across the floor but didn't stay long enough to see where it stopped. She ran. There was a phone by the front door, a land line, but it was too close to where the man was clutching his arm and howling. Her cellphone was upstairs.

Get to the phone. Call Jane.

She ran up the stairs and into the bedroom, locking the door behind her. She weighed moving the dresser in front of it but didn't want to waste the effort on something she was almost certain she couldn't move by herself. She went straight for the phone and hit Jane's speed dial number. It rang twice before she heard the click that said someone had answered.

"Jane!" She heard his footsteps pounding heavily up the stairs. "Jane! Someone's in the house Jane!" The door shook with a heavy crack and then an even louder crack sounded and it sprang open. "He's tall Jane, over six feet, he's blonde, his eyes are…" He grabbed the phone from her roughly and smacked her, hard. She flew and crashed hard into the nightstand. She felt the sharp corner rip open the delicate flesh of her neck before she fell to the floor. She was beyond screaming now, helpless to watch as his boots smashed her phone.

When you're a child, you're constantly told to be afraid if a strange man kidnaps you. Fear kicks in and you do what you can to put it to the back of your mind. But Maura used her fear to her advantage. She memorized every single detail she could. He waited until he had her in the back of the SUV before he blindfolded her. She was quick to amplify her remaining senses. She was more likely to survive if she remained calm despite her fear, than if she gave in to it.

She memorized every turn the car took, winding away from her house in the outskirts of town and straight back towards it's heart.

When the car stopped the first thing she heard was a faint clicking sound, almost like that of a camera.

He climbed into the back and fell down into the seat next to her. "Time for a nap doctor."

The syringe was cold as it slid into her neck and the last thing she registered was the pain from its close proximity to her wound before she slipped away.

When she finally came to there were three things that immediately caught her attention. First, her blindfold was still on and she was tied down to a cold chair, though the knots were not very well executed, tight enough to hold her to the chair but not tight enough to keep her from moving. Second, her sweats were missing. And finally, her legs felt as if they were on fire.

She heard her attacker rummaging around, but it was distant, as if in another room.

She tried to move her arms enough to slip out of the knots binding her wrists, but she couldn't get enough leverage to pull her wrist through.

Heavy footsteps approached and she stopped moving.

"I thought you'd be waking up soon."

"What'd you drug me with?"

He chose not to answer her question. "We have big plans for you Dr. Isles."

"We?"

"You don't get to ask the questions here."

The sudden anger in his voice told Maura that she had caught him giving up more than he was supposed to.

"If you let me go, I can help you. I work with the police and I could pull in a few favors. They're very loyal to me."

"It's their loyalties I'm counting on doc."

She heard him reach for something and then the telltale tones of a cellphone keypad.

"Say hello to your girlfriend doc."

"Jane."

He slapped a gag over her mouth before she could say anything more than that one word.

"I'm sorry Jane, she can't do that. That would be too easy. You have til midnight to find her."

Maura heard Jane's voice shouting from the other end of the line and her heart ached. It was so petty, but all she wanted was Jane there to protect her.

"You're wasting time Jane. The good doctor's waiting. Tick tock. Tick tock."

She heard him end the call and set the cell phone on a hard surface off to her right somewhere.

He slipped the gag off.

"Sorry bout that doc, didn't want you telling the detective where she might find us, not yet at least."

"What's happening at midnight?"

The man chuckled, a sound that sent a shiver down Maura's spine. "I'd rather not say. I find it depressing to speak of such unpleasant things."

-/-

Maura had been left to herself for a couple hours after that. She spent the time trying to free her wrists and thinking about everything she knew about this man. He could have killed her, easily, back at her place. So why hadn't he? Well, he was obviously using her to get to Jane. He called _her_ specifically. He had _her_ number. But why? Did he know Jane? Was he a perp she'd arrested? An ex-con out for revenge? Somehow she didn't think so. His treatment of her had been pretty fair. Except, of course, for his original blow in her bedroom, and in his defense, she had just sliced his shoulder open. That had been a rage filled reaction. But the pain in her legs, cuts she could feel every time she moved, he'd inflicted them while she was unconscious. He'd left her bindings loose enough that they weren't unrealistically uncomfortable. He'd removed her gag the second it was no longer needed. He was doing what was necessary to fulfill his mission but he was trying to cause her minimal pain in doing so. She had a feeling that even if Jane didn't show up by midnight, he would have a hard time carrying out the implications of his threat.

Maura spent her time trying to keep internal track of the time, but there was no way to know how much time had elapsed while she was unconscious. Jane had already known she was missing but that meant little since she'd called her in the moment. Jane would have immediately sent someone over to the house. So instead of worrying about how much time she had left, she focused all her thoughts on Jane, just to get her through.

Jane was no doubt worried to the point of hysteria, but she'd be keeping her cool. She would refuse to let her emotions go until she'd either succeeded or failed, and if Maura knew anything of Jane Rizzoli, the detective was telling herself that failure was not an option. She'd be feeling guilty…she'd blame herself for not being there when it happened. She'd wonder over and over again if she locked the front door or not. But, despite all the emotions, she'd tear the city apart until she found Maura, and Maura knew that, even if it meant Jane had to go from building to building, searching every nook and cranny herself, she'd find the medical examiner.

She had never noticed that he'd left, but she noticed his return. She heard a heavy door slam in a different room, and then footsteps, two sets. She heard him mumbling to someone.

The door to the room opened and she had to keep her body from tensing. She didn't want to show any fear. She wanted to be like Jane would be in this situation, cool and calm, as if being kidnapped happened to her all the time. Don't show your fear; they get drunk on the power.

One set of footsteps crossed the room and a hand caressed her cheek. It's small size indicated female, but she knew without seeing that this woman wasn't Jane. Her hand was too soft, and more than anything, it was missing the small scar in its center. She smelled of perfume, Gucci, one hundred bucks a bottle, before tax. The hand slipped from her face.

Her head was jerked to the side violently then, tearing open the wound on her neck. She tried to hold back the scream of pain that threatened to escape her lips. She felt fresh blood pooling around the edges of the wound and slipping out of it in drops.

"We had a slight altercation; I didn't know she would hit the table."

She heard the click of the footsteps as they retreated from her and then the sound of flesh slapping flesh, hard. Whoever had originally kidnapped her, he wasn't calling the shots. This woman was.

The door closed then and she heard the sound of them fighting on the other side. The walls were thin and she caught bits and pieces but nothing concrete.

"Did she see you?"

"…focused on the body…"

"…left the cellphone behind…"

"…deleted before…"

"…dirty sheets…"

Nothing of what she heard made sense to her. What body? What cellphone? It couldn't be hers; it had been smashed. What had been deleted? And what sheets?

-/-

It was over an hour before they bothered her again.

The door opened and she became instantly alert. The heaviness of the footsteps told her it was the man. She couldn't help flinching when she felt his hand near her face. He pulled off the blindfold.

Maura knew exactly where she was and her heart broke. She was in Jane's apartment, in Jane's bedroom. They were going to kill her here; that way when Jane found out it would cause maximum damage. All this time searching and Maura would have been in her own apartment the whole time. It was quite brilliant in it's own psychotic way.

She looked down at her legs. The cuts weren't deep enough to cause any permanent damage to the nerves and muscles but they looked as if they would scar.

"It's a nice night Dr. Isles, too bad Jane isn't here to celebrate with us. I invited her to the party, but I guess she's running a little late."

Maura's head shot up. "Veronica?"

The dark haired woman smirked. "Guilty."

Maura felt a sick twist in her gut. She'd trusted this woman and Jane hadn't. Jane had been right from the start and Maura had just dismissed her opinion of the woman as if her girlfriend were being paranoid. It seemed so stupid now, here in this moment.

"Aww, come on, Maura, don't look so glum. Truth be told, I'm not planning on having any real fun until Jane shows."

Maura had never wanted Jane to be with her and be as far away from her as possible at the same time before.

"Why?"

Veronica tried to maintain her cool composure, but Maura could tell that the question had gotten to her, simple as it was.

"Jane Rizzoli took something from me once, and now I'm going to take that same thing from her."

"You should come see this." Maura hadn't even noticed the man had left the room until he was back at the door.

Veronica smirked. "Wait right there for me."

The second they shut the door and left Maura alone, she sprang into action. The one advantage she had over these psychopaths was that she knew her environment better than they did.

A jiggle of the chair told her that they had secured her to it, but not it to the floor. She scooted, slowly so as not to scrape loudly enough to alert the two in the other room. It took her several moments but she finally made it to Jane's bedside table. She backed herself blindly up to it. Her hands stretched as far as they could and searched for the handle on the drawer. When she found it, she pulled forward a little and tried to stick her hand in. It was painful to turn her hand at the correct angle but it was worth it the moment her hands closed around what she was searching for. She knew it'd be there; she'd placed it in the drawer herself months ago.

_"Look at this stack of mail you're letting pile up Jane. It's ridiculous." Maura walked into Jane's bedroom from the living room and sat on what had become her side of the bed, though she only slept there when she was too tired to go home._

_Jane waved it off and curled up on her side of the bed, burying her face in her pillow. "I don't have time for mail. If it's important, there's easier ways to get a hold of me."_

_Maura set the immense stack of envelopes on her lap and reached for her purse. She reached in the huge bag and withdrew a long slender object._

_"Oh my God Maura… what are you planning to do, kill the postman?"_

_Maura frowned and shook her head. "Of course not Jane, don't be silly." She held up the object in her hand. "It's a letter opener."_

_"It's a glorified dagger, you could poke your eye out."_

_"Maybe if you'd open your own mail, I wouldn't have to risk blinding myself."_

_Jane sighed. "Just put it in the drawer; I'll get to it in the morning."_

_Maura looked over at a yawning Jane and finally conceded, tucking the mail and letter opener into the drawer before shutting it and curling up on her own side of the bed._

The letter opener made slow work on her bindings, but eventually she felt them give way. Her shoulders screamed in relief as her wrists slipped from their prison. She set the letter opener on her lap and bent over to release the bindings on her ankles.

The second she was free, Maura heard a commotion in the other room. A voice she'd never heard before called Jane's name and then there was a thud.

Maura turned back to the bedside table. They'd left the phone connected, not the most brilliant of moves, but Maura wasn't about to object. She reached for it, just as she heard Veronica tell the man to 'grab the other one'. She only had moments. She picked up the phone and dialed Korsak's cell. She waited until it started to ring and then hung up. She hoped he would react as she predicted and become suspicious enough when he saw a missed call from Jane's apartment and come to investigate.

She tucked the letter opener down her top, sliding it easily between her bra and skin in the little space between her breasts, like some women were known to do with daggers, and moved the chair back to where it was before, leaning down, pretending to still be untying her ankle bindings as she heard footsteps coming down the hall. She needed to draw suspicion away from the phone. She had to make it seem as if she were just getting free. If any distress caused them to leave the apartment, her plan wouldn't work.

The man opened the door and his eyes grew wide. He raced forward and grabbed her. She fought back, but was no match for him.

"She's trying to get away."

"Bring her out here with the others."

Maura let herself be led out to the living room. Veronica was currently working on binding a younger woman Maura didn't recognize. The woman was unconscious on one side of the couch. Maura looked to the other side. Her breath caught. She knew Jane would be there, she'd heard her name, but seeing her was a totally different thing entirely. Blood was trickling down the back of her neck and her wrists and ankles were bound.

Maura didn't know what possessed her, or where she found the strength to break from the man's grasp, but she did. "What in the fuck did you do to her? You bitch!" She lunged for Veronica.

The man's arms were around her waist a moment before she made it to the IA detective.

"Oooh, she's fiesty. I like it." Veronica just smirked.


	32. Revelations

DISCLAIMER:: still don't won anything

A/N:: this took awhile, i know, and i apologize. i have moved into mountainous terrain and there is little to no internet availability at any given time, especially since about a few hundred feet up the mountain from my small city is the snow line. it's the lowest it's been in years. snow is a word foreign to californians. but anyhoo, update for you guys. i should be able to post the next one within the week, if the weather improves any. thanks for everyone's continued support. i appreciate it immensely.

-/-

Korsak watched Jane leave in a huff. He knew how stressed she really was about the situation and how deathly afraid she was that she wouldn't make the midnight deadline. Korsak had known the female Rizzoli for many years and he knew the way she processed things almost better than she did. He'd known about her love for Dr. Isles long before she'd admitted it and long before the ME gave even the slightest hint that she might reciprocate.

Frost came in a few minutes later, closing his notepad and wearing a look of disappointment.

"Anything from the neighbors?"

Frost sighed and shook his head. "They all said the same thing. The tenant is female, quiet, keeps to herself. No one knows her name, just that she dresses professionally for work and she leaves at 8:30 am and get home at around 6pm. It's so stupid, how can you know someone's routine but not know their name?"

"People in apartment buildings like this like to keep apprised of the goings on of everyone around."

"Well, unfortunately for us, her neighbors are nosy, but not nosy enough."

Korsak frowned.

"Where's Jane?" Frost looked around.

Korsak's frown deepened. "She went back to headquarters, the stress is finally hitting her and she needs time alone."

Frost looked about to say something but was smart and kept his mouth shut.

"Jane wants one of us to go check on Luke's progress. I think we should both go. The crime lab techs have everything under control."

Frost nodded and led the way out of the apartment.

-/-

Korsak paced in the hallway of the hospital. Frost had offered to be the one to find out about Luke and Korsak was fine with waiting. He hated hospitals. They made him nervous. And seeing Luke, beaten and in pain, fighting for his life, the mere though bothered him more than he would ever admit.

Nurses looked at him curiously as they passed, no doubt wondering what a scowling old detective was doing in their hallway, but knowing enough not to inquire.

How had this gotten so screwed up? It seemed like they'd come leaps and bounds… they had uncovered so much about Maura's kidnapper and yet they were no closer to finding her. He looked at his watch. They were three minutes away from being out of time. His first thought was to call Jane at headquarters. No doubt she was pacing the bullpen just as he was pacing this hallway, wondering what more she could have done and hating herself for not doing it. But he talked himself out of it before he took action. Jane would be inconsolable the second midnight struck, but, being Jane, she wouldn't let that hinder her search for Dr. Isles. It didn't matter if Maura was…gone, Jane would still tear the city apart until she found her.

He felt a vibration in his pocket. He dug into it until his fingers closed around his phone, but by then it had already stopped vibrating. He pulled it out and saw he had one missed call, from Jane Home.

"What's Jane doing at her apartment?"

He pressed redial and waited but the call rang through with no answer.

_Odd_. He shrugged the thought away though and resumed his pacing. Whoever this woman was, she'd devoted her every free moment to stalking Jane. He'd gotten an eyeful of the psychotic woman's personal murder board... _Wait, that's exactly what that room looked like... a huge murder board_. It struck him as strange. It wasn't as if a board used to sort facts was exclusive to homicide units or anything, but it did seem odd how much it mirrored the ancient police tool. And the prescriptions in the medicine cabinet. In and of themselves, they were troublesome, anti-psychotics weren't exactly given to Miss Everyday Working Class. But, it wasn't the meds existence that troubled him, it was that their labels were ripped off. There's important information on those labels, medication identification numbers for ordering a refill, quantity and strength, reminder memos warning you to 'take with food' or that 'drowsiness may occur'. The only plausible reason he could think of that someone might rip the labels off was to hide something. But in this case it obviously wasn't about hiding what she was taking, maybe on the off chance she'd been having guests over and didn't want them stumbling upon her crazy pills. She'd written what was in the bottles in permanent marker, displayed for the world to see. No, this was to hide her identity, which meant only one thing. She knew they were coming. She had expected them to find this place. She had expected them to find the connection to Bobby Marino. She'd been a step ahead the whole time, anticipated their every move. She knew how cops thought, she had an intimate understanding of it. No wonder they could find no usuable prints in her own apartment. She was either one smart bitch or she was... a cop.

He heard the sound of heavy footfalls jogging towards him.

He turned and was met with a hurried looking Frost.

"Korsak, it's Veronica."

Korsak frowned. "She's working with Port."

-/-

Jane came to to the sound of arguing. It was distant and hushed, faraway enough from her hearing spectrum that she couldn't make out what was being said, but she could discern that it was a man and a woman talking.

Where was she? And where'd this headache come from? How much did she drink last night? No, that wasn't it, this pain was decidedly worse than that of a hangover induced headache, and more centralized to one specific spot on the back of her head. Her first instinct was to reach for the spot and it was only when she tried that she realized she was bound, wrists and ankles.

It came back to her then, like a movie played out behind her eyes. Veronica, barely alive on the chair in her apartment. Erin trying to get her attention. And then, nothing. She was attacked from behind. That much was obvious.

She opened her eyes and immediately the action sent a searing pain through her head back to the wound which throbbed harder.

She was on the couch.

She tried cautiously moving her head to the right, nothing but the wall looking back at her from several feet away. Then she tried the left, and her breath instantly caught.

On the opposite end of the couch was Erin, obviously out, slumped partially over the armrest. If not for the barely visible rise and fall of her chest, Jane would have thought her dead. But it was the woman between them that most caught her attention.

The few hours since she'd seen Maura last seemed like an eternity. But there she was. Her legs were bare with the small gashes in them, as she had seen earlier in the photograph. There were finger shaped bruises all over her arms from the countless times she'd been handled, no doubt. But most troubling, and the one thing that caught Jane's attention so fully that her own pain faded to the back of her mind was the huge wound at the base of her neck. It looked as if somebody had started to decapitate her and then changed their mind. It was deep, but obviously no arteries had been hit… the blood stain on the collar of the shirt was big, but not enough that the loss was fatal. A bruise was on her cheek, barely visible, as if it were just forming.

"She got a little testy while Jack was trying to tie her up. Kept trying to kick and hit him. I felt it was necessary, though unfortunate."

Jane's head whipped around and she instantly regretted it. The pain shot through her head again, reminding her it was very much still there and refused to be ignored.

When her eyes were finally able to focus on the source of the voice, she saw Veronica leaning against the wall with a satisfied look on her face.

Jane's stomach sank. "You?"

Veronica's smirk grew. "Me."

"But…"

"All in good time Jane." Veronica looked over Jane's shoulder, somewhere off behind her. "I think we should wake Dr. Isles and our other friend up before I tell the story, don't you?"

Jane met Veronica's eyes and a chill swept through her body. There was a madness in the woman's eyes that she'd only seen in one other individual's eyes before, Hoyt. And that time she'd barely made it out alive. Would she be so lucky this time? And even more, would Maura?


	33. Mind Games

DISCLAIMER:: as always, not mine

A/N:: so, i am down from the moutains once more staying at my parents house for the night so i can get this posted before i go right back up the moutain tomorrow evening. sorry for the long distance in between chapters, but as i've said, i unfortunately have no internet access up in the snow lands, it's only available at the public library, and while i do live only 3 blocks away from said library, it only has 3 computers that are never unoccupied. only a handful of chapters before i'm planning to wrap this story up. thanks to everyone who has stuck with me thus far; there would be no story without you guys. enjoy!

-/-

A darkness bloomed somewhere in the heart of Jane Rizzoli that surpassed the fear as she watched Veronica walk over to Maura and slap her across the cheek, sending a flush of red to the edges of the bruise already there.

Maura groaned and the sound sent Jane over the edge. Her ankles were bound, limiting her movement, but she managed to hook them behind the agent's, tripping her. Veronica fell backwards, landing heavily, her head missing the coffee table by inches.

Jane felt someone grab the back of her hair and jerk her head backwards. It sent pain radiating from the wound on her head, and she winced heavily.

"Down boy." Veronica looked at the man with his grib on Jane's hair.

Finally Jane felt him release her and her eyes met Veronica, but rather than the anger she expected to find in the IA agent's eyes, she saw only amusement. That angered Jane even more. She was treating them all as if they were her toys.

"Didn't your mom ever teach you not to play with your food?" Jane's tone was viscious.

Veronica leaned down, grabbing Jane's chin firmly, and bringing the detective's face inches from hers. "This is a simple matter of eye for an eye detective. You took something from me, and I plan on taking that exact same thing from you." Veronica looked pointedly towards the medical examiner and then let Jane's face go with a shove.

"So, who's this new addition to the party Jane?" Veronica signaled to the person behind Jane to wake Erin.

Jane just stared at Veronica testily. The agent shrugged. "Just have to ask her myself then."

Jackson Port finally came into Jane's range of vision. He reached for Erin and shook her awake in a manner that was, Jane was surprised to note, rather gentle.

Erin lifted her head slowly, shaking off any drowsiness and becoming fully alert in the matter of a single second. She took in her surroundings, assessing them quickly, ending with meeting Jane's gaze. Her eyes spoke silently how sorry she was that she hadn't warned Jane in enough time to save her the blow to the head.

"Jane?"

Both Erin and Jane's eyes moved immediately to the honey haired woman between them. Maura was staring at Jane as if she were the only woman in the room, as if they weren't in a life and death situation. Jane knew the feeling instantly, no matter where she was or how stressed she was feeling, she could look at or even just think of Maura and the medical examiner instantly became her gravity, the thing that kept her place in the world.

She smiled sadly at Maura. "Hey."

Maura smiled back, tears stinging the edges of her eyes. "You came for me."

"Always."

"Ugh. Not to break up the little love-fest, but you're giving me a head ache, and we're kinda pressed for time, so can we move things along please?"

Jane looked up, just barely able to see the receding strands of jealously that were retreating from her eyes.

"Why are you doing this Veronica?" Maura finally seemed to notice her for the first time since she came to.

"Bobby Marino. It's been about Bobby this whole time." Jane answered before Veronica could even open her mouth to respond.

"You don't get to say his name!" Anger broke through Veronica's voice and it was the first time Jane had really seen her break from her cool, calm, and slightly psychotic demeanor.

"What's Bobby Marino have to do with any of this?" Maura looked confused.

"Didn't Veronica tell you?" Jane never took her eyes off the IA agent. "Bobby Marino was her boyfriend. She's a dirty cop, just like he was, probably the reason he got away with all the drug running for so long. I saw his files. He'd been investigated before, but found to be clean. You were the investigating detective each time. I'll bet Danny came to you with his suspicions and you just dismissed him. Tell me, Veronica, did you even feel bad when your boyfriend put a bullet in…"

"He was my fiancé!" Veronica got in Jane's face, rage spread across her features. Jane just smirked, happy to be playing the mind games now. Oh how fast the tables can be turned.

"I was under the impression you and Jackson were intimately involved." Maura looked even more confused.

Jane looked over to where Jackson was tensely staring at the women. Obviously all this Bobby stuff was news to him too.

"Oh, that's what she'd like him to think. Let me guess Jackson, she started screwing you right before she asked you to off Rebecca Dalton? She'd been giving you looks throughout that night at the diner when Rebecca brought her in. She waited until Rebecca was occupied with her friends and then snuck to the back and told you all about how she'd been watching you all night. She told you how she wished you could be together if only her girlfriend was out of the way." She saw the doubt seep into Jackson's eyes. He really was just a pawn in all this, blinded by his love for someone who cared less about his existence than she had about the girl she'd had him kill.

Veronica slapped her with so much force that a her nail opened a small cut just below Jane's right eye. But Jane ignored the pain and smirked, determined to beat Veronica at her own game. "Struck a nerve? Or did I just out your little scam? Tell him the truth Veronica. Tell him how it was just a test, a test to see how easily you could manipulate him. Obviously he passed."

"Is that true?"

Veronica stepped over to him. "She's trying to play with your mind, don't listen to her. You know I love you."

"Is that why she never lets you up to her apartment? The one she shared with Bobby, by the way. That shrine in her other bedroom was not to you but to him."

"You told me you were over him!" Jackson was glaring angrily at Veronica.

Jane smiled and turned slightly to the side. Maura watched her and caught on immediately. She turned the opposite direction and scooted back until her fingers met with Jane's bonds. Slowly, she worked them loose, knowing they might never get an opportunity where Veronica and Jackson were both otherwise engaged.

Jane felt the cords binding her wrists give way and fall. She then undid Maura's and signaled for Maura to work on Erin's.

"You're being paranoid!" Veronica pushed Jackson shoulder. She was loosing control, this was not how this was supposed to be going.

"You've been using me this whole time!" The anger and betrayal in Jackson's tone was menacing and all the women in the room were suddenly alert, very well aware that he had killed before.

Veronica frowned, and then, slowly, her entire demeanor changed, and she smiled. "You're right. I have been using you. And you've served your purpose." Her gun was up in an instant and she pulled the trigger before he could even raise his arm.


	34. Smoking Gun

DISCLAIMER:: not mine, never has been

A/N:: so i am down from the mountains for one day to watch my sister's concert and i thought i'd post this before i leave for the concert hall. the weather is really awful, thunderstorms and such and so i might not be going back until tomorrow if it's still stormy like this when i get out tonight, which means i might post again tomorrow. but we'll just have to see. anyway, i think this fic is winding down. enjoy!

-/-

The three women had enough common sense to hide their now untied wrists behind them as Veronica turned back to face them. Her gun was once again at her side, and Jane saw no remorse in her eyes at having just killed her lover.

Maura's eyes were locked on the man in question. Jane couldn't read her expression but she could almost detect a hint of sadness in her gaze.

"Jane didn't kill Bobby, Veronica. He had the option to surrender. He gave his life up. I know, I was there, talking with him until he died."

Veronica shook her head. "That's where you're wrong Dr. Isles. If Jane here would have just died like a good little girl, Bobby would still be alive. He'd be a hero, a survivor of a terrible rampage and he would have stopped the drug running and we'd be married by now. Everything could have ended that night if things had just gone as planned."

"Do you really believe that he would have stopped? He was a criminal!" Jane shook her head. She couldn't believe how delusional this woman was.

"He was a good man!"

"He killed his partner! There's no coming back from that! He killed the one person who would always have his back. And why? Because he was afraid about his drug operation being discovered. He was trying to keep his drug business alive. The man you fell in love with didn't exist anymore; he had become the thing we're supposed to protect against. Maybe it started as something small, he was desperate for money, he needed the cash quick. But he had built an empire, a name for himself. You don't just walk away from that. Face it Veronica, the man you fell in love with was long gone."

"Shut up! Just _shut up_!" There was a threatening growl in Veronica's voice and the malicious glint returned to her eyes, but beyond that Jane could still see the small blossoming glimmer of confusion, the questions floating through the agent's mind wondering if maybe they had a point. Jane had to try to keep herself from smiling, Veronica was slowly falling right where Jane needed her to get them all out alive.

-/-

Korsak felt it the second they entered the old brick apartment building where his old partner lived, the all-encompassing feeling that something was wrong.

The building was older than any other on the busy street and built for efficiency and privacy. There were only two small apartments per floor, hallways with one door heading each end. If you were having a fight with your spouse of, well, other things with that same spouse, it was more than likely the neighbor you shared your floor with wouldn't even hear you. In this case, that was going to work against them.

He climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, slowly, keeping his ears open, Frost following closely behind. At this hour, no one was up.

When they reached the fourth floor landing, Korsak stopped so abruptly that Frost nearly crashed into him. The younger detective was about to ask what the hold up was when he caught what Korsak had seen. Standing a few feet in front of them, draped in the shadows of the hallway, was a man who made Barry Frost go pale as a sheet.

"Hello boys," Patrick Doyle whispered. "It's about damn time you showed up."

-/-

Jane was in perfect view of the door when it inched open. The hulking figure of Patrick Doyle slipped in without so much as a breath. He crept along the wall, slipping into the alcove that led to the kitchen to block himself from Veronica's view.

Jane let the giddy feeling of relief consume her. For the first time all night, she actually believed they would all get out of this okay. She looked at Maura and the blonde, as if sensing her eyes, met her gaze. There was a calm there that comforted Jane even further, and she found herself feeling glad that she had Maura to draw strength from.

The gaze was not lost on Veronica. Envy twisted in her gut. "I think it's time we got this show on the road, don't you Detective?" She sauntered over until she was standing in front of Maura. She lifted her gun, bringing it level with Maura's forehead. "My apologies, doctor, but Jane owes me a debt and I'm here to collect."

The next minute was a blur, and only many hours later, in the safety of Massachusetts General Hospital would Jane be able to fully recount anything that happened in her apartment, though her statement would differ greatly from what actually occurred.

Erin crashed into Veronica's side, knocking her to the floor.

The IA agent never let go of her gun and as she rolled easily back to her feet, she raised it, slamming the butt of it hard against Erin's head and Erin's body went limp, collapsing to the floor.

"Patrick?" Maura's voice was confused, and it also drew attention inadvertently to her father's presence and Veronica, on a pure adrenaline rush, pointed her gun without aim and fired in the direction of the man. The bullet struck him and he toppled as the wind rushed from his lungs.

"Dad!" Maura ran to her father's side as Jane grabbed for Veronica's gun.

The two women struggled for what seemed like hours to Jane but only amounted to maybe ten seconds in real time.

Jane saw the moment Veronica got the upper hand and she knew it was over. Veronica knocked her to the floor and she was left, staring up at the barrel of a gun.

"This ends now." Veronica's finger closed on the trigger.

Jane used the last moment of her life to pray that Maura made it out alive, that Veronica would consider the taking of her life as the payment for Bobby's death and leave it at that.

When the shot rang out she didn't feel the burn of the bullet as it seared through her. Instead she felt heavy, as if a great weight had swooped in and knocked the wind right out of her.

It took nearly five seconds for her to realize she wasn't dead.

She opened her eyes and came face to face with Veronica, whose face was mere inches from hers, her eyes gazing lifelessly into Jane's, frozen with the rage she'd felt the moment she had died.

Jane hefted the dead weight (pun not intended) up and rolled her off to the right.

She looked up to see Maura Isles, still holding a smoking gun.


	35. Coffee Support

DISCLAIMER:: not mine

A/N:: weather has me stuck where i am until at least monday which means more updates. yay! thanks for everyone's continued support; it is greatly appreciated. only a couple chapters left. as always, enjoy.

-/-

_Jane jumped up off the floor and was at Maura's side in an instant. "Maura." The doctor didn't respond, the gun still held in front of her, at ready, just as Jane had taught her to do many months ago in this very apartment. She was still looking straight ahead to where Veronica had been only moments before, about to kill Jane._

_"Maura, honey, it's over." Still no response. "Maura." Jane reached out and gently removed the gun from Maura's hands. Though she was met with no resistance, Maura's hands still kept their position, as if clinging to the phantom of the weapon that had been in them only moments before._

_Jane put a hand on each of the blonde doctor's cheeks and slowly turned her head to face her. Maura's eyes were vacant and distant for a moment until finally, painstakingly, they focused on Jane. She lowered her arms… and collapsed._

Jane looked at the EKG as it blipped away the steady stream of proof that Maura Isles was indeed still alive. Thinking about that distant, almost dead, look in Maura's eyes scared her and she pulled her sweater tighter around her lean frame in an effort to suppress shivers that had nothing to do with chilly air.

_"We called it in Jane. A bus is on the way." As if on cue, sirens sounded in the night far outside the small apartment._

_Jane snapped into business mode. Having checked Maura's pulse and laying her on the couch, she turned to the other people in the room. Erin had already regained consciousness, waking up with a moan seconds after Veronica was shot. She was now helping up an injured Patrick Doyle._

_Korsak and Frost, laying in wait for Patrick's cue, had burst in the second they heard the first shot but the events happened too fast for them to interfere._

_Jane looked over to Patrick and Erin. "How bad is it?"_

_"I have to get him out of here."_

_Jane met Erin's gaze and knew instantly what she meant. "You saved our lives. You saved hers." She glanced down at Maura trying to hide her worry and wishing the ambulance would hurry up. "I owe you. If you ever…"_

_Erin nodded. They both knew what Jane was implying._

_Erin ducked under Doyle's arm, letting him support himself on her back and they both disappeared outside the doorway, stealthy even while injured._

Jane wasn't sure how long they'd been at the hospital. Hours could have passed just as easily as it could have only been minutes.

It became an unspoken agreement between Jane, Frost and Korsak that they would not mention Erin or Patrick Doyle's involvement.

"How's she doing?"

Jane looked up to find Frost standing in the doorway, a hot cup of coffee in both hands. He held one out to her and she accepted it gratefully.

"I don't know. The doctor said her body gave out from the stress and the steady loss of blood from her neck and legs, that she just needs to recuperate and she'll be fine." She traced the rim of the steaming cup with a long finger. "But she's so still." She glanced at the bed. Maura lie, motionless, except for the barely visible rise and fall of her chest. There was a white gauze bandage the size of Jane's hand on her neck and she knew there were many strewn across the gashes on her legs, though the blanket hid them from her sight.

In the ambulance, they had assessed the wounds on Maura's legs and the bigger gash across her neck. It reminded Jane sickeningly of one of Hoyt's signature moves, the coup de grace, when he'd finish them off by slicing through his victim's carotid artery and jugular vein, leaving their larynx sliced and exposed. Maura's wound was definitely not as deep and if it had transected either the jugular or the carotid, she would have already bled out. But that fact did nothing to quell the raging storm in her chest.

She hadn't noticed Frost moving closer until she felt his hand touch her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "She'll be fine, you both will."

Jane stared down into the brown swirls of her coffee as if it would offer her the reassurance she so desperately sought. She wanted to believe Frost's words but there was that nagging voice in the back of her head that prevented her from believing him completely.

"She's always saving me… and she always pays the price."

"She loves you." He said it as an answer, though she hadn't voiced the question aloud.

"But what good does that do her if it just keeps putting her in harms way?"

Frost was quiet for so long that she became convinced he had no answer. Finally, he sighed. "You save her too Jane. No one knows better than Korsak and I that you would have torn apart every inch of this city with your bare hands until you found her. And she knew it too. She knows you love her Jane, and she loves you. Dr. Isles is the most intelligent person I know. She analyzes everything. I trust her intelligence enough to know she's weighed the risks and decided that, for you, _to be with you_, they're worth taking." He squeezed her shoulder and turned to go, to leave his words to soak in.

"Hey Frost?" He turned in the doorway.

She was quiet, searching for the right words. She looked down at the cup in her hands. She'd never been very good with emotions. "Thanks for the coffee."

Frost smiled, already having known Jane long enough to read between the lines. "Anytime."

Jane sipped the coffee. Caffeine was the only thing separating her from surely passing out. It had been a long night. Once the brew was gone however, her focus crept right back to its previous position, watching the EKG. Despite the coffee boost, the pulsing green line soon lulled her to sleep.

-/-

When Jane awakened the room was completely dark. She glanced at the window behind her and stood, walking to it, parted the curtain just enough to look outside and confirm it was dark. Had she slept the whole day? She stretched and turned back to the bed. It was empty. Panic shot through her body.

She was out the door in a second, nearly pummeling a nurse as she launched herself into the brightly lit hospital corridor.

The nurse looked at her with concern. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

"Isles, Maura Isles, she's missing." Jane pointed back into the room she'd just emerged from. "I woke up and she was gone."

"Dr. Isles just went for a walk. Her doctor just wanted to check the function of her legs, make sure everything is working properly. She'll be back soon."

Jane tried to calm her rapidly pulsing heart. Maura was okay. She'd be back soon. Finally, she smiled. Relief was evident on her face.

"Sorry."

She bent down to retrieve the charts she'd knocked out of the nurse's hands. She handed them back to her and retreated back into the safety of the room.

Maura returned a half hour later, another nurse beside her. When the nurse saw Jane awake she gave a short nod and silently slipped from the room.

Jane walked over and silently helped Maura get back into bed, transferring the IV bag from the portable rack back onto the hook by her bed. She then went back to her chair on the other side of the bed and sat back down.

"The nurse said you haven't moved from that chair in nearly twenty four hours."

Jane met Maura's gaze. She struggled with words as her emotions raged inside her with the fierceness of waves in a storm. "I never want to leave you again."

Maura frowned and looked down at the IV needle protruding from her right hand. "Because you think that's the only way to protect me?"

Jane ran a hand through her unruly curls. "No."

Maura's eyes shot up to meet hers, surprise evident on her face.

"May I ask why?"

Jane wrung her hands and dropped her gaze. "Because… when I'm not near you… I feel… like something is missing." Jane was scared to look up, but she had to gauge Maura's reaction. Her eyes met Maura's and she was instantly aware that she had said the right thing.

Maura scooted over and patted the empty spot on the bed next to her.

Jane smiled and crawled up beside her.

Maura curled her body against the thin frame of the female detective, something she'd done countless times before, except now it meant more. Every touch was different now. She smiled to herself.

"It's going to scar, you know. It's the first thing the doctor told me when I woke up. The ectodermal tissue will mend, but there will be significant scarring." Maura buried her face in the detective's shoulder, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to spill over.

"Hey…" Jane lifted Maura's chin until the ME met her gaze. "You must know how gorgeous you are, scars or no scars, you are the most beautiful person I've ever met Maura Isles, inside and out."

Maura searched her eyes for any hint that she was lying but found no evidence to support the theory.

"Just when I think I can't love you more." Maura leaned up, her lips softly meeting Jane's.

The lights flicked on, catching both women by surprise.

"There will be no hanky panky in my hospital!"

A beefy, and slightly scary, looking nurse stood with her arms crossed across her ample chest.

Jane was so surprised she fell backward out of the bed.

The nurse raised an eyebrow as Jane scrambled into her chair. "Mmmhmm. That's what I thought."

Jane and Maura both watched open mouthed as the nurse turned off the light and disappeared into the hall.

Jane counted to fifteen and then slowly crept back towards the bed.

"You better be getting up to go to the bathroom, because I know you're not getting back in that bed."

Jane grumbled and crawled back in her chair as Maura giggled.


	36. Favors

DISCLAIMER:: not mine, nor will it ever be

A/N:: weather has finally improved. thank you california for finally acting like your usual self! but unfortunately that means i must once again leave my seaside life to go up into the still chilly sierra nevadas for another week. won't be back until mid to late next week. but i leave you with a parting gift, an update from me to you. only one or two more chapters to go after this. it's been a long ride and i want to thank everyone who's stuck by me through this story, you've made it everything that it is. and for that, i thank you.

-/-

Maura tried for the 182nd (she'd kept precise count) time to close her eyes and drift off into sleep. It had been much easier in the hospital, when painkillers delivered straight into her blood stream through her IV had offered their assistance. But since she had returned home she couldn't even bear to keep her eyes closed for more than a couple minutes at a time. She'd wouldn't admit it to Jane, but the whole situation had left her feeling scared and paranoid.

She sighed and glanced over at the form next to her. Jane Rizzoli was spread across the normally vacant half of her bed. She looked longingly at the strong arms draped across the pillow. Slowly she slid over, pressing her body into Jane's. Instantly Jane's arms slipped around her. She smiled and buried her face against Jane's neck. She was asleep within moments.

When Jane finally awakened the first thing she noticed was Maura in her arms. She gingerly slipped the medical examiner out of her arms and snuck out of bed. She made a sweep of the house. She didn't want to admit it to Maura, but she couldn't barely hide her fear and paranoia. Only after checking every door and window to confirm they were locked did she return to the bedroom.

Maura had kicked the blankets off in Jane's absence. In the pale light from the window Jane could see the scars on her upper thighs perfectly. She winced at the reminder of those wounds when they were fresh. Maura had yet to complain but Jane knew that the small imperfections bothered her. There was still a bandage on her healing neck, but Jane had seen Maura's face when the doctor described the scar that would remain once it healed. She knew Maura didn't dress in designer clothes for vain purposes; she considered clothes a work of art, but Maura did also pride herself on maintaining a certain standard as far as her physical appearance was concerned.

Maura hadn't been sleeping, though Jane knew she tried to hide that from her. But Jane knew she was struggling with it. It was hard being in this house, even for her. She felt no sense of security, no protection from the harshness of the city beyond its walls. But it wasn't as if her apartment was any better. She'd moved out, making Frost and Korsak grab the few possessions she had worth keeping. She wouldn't go back there. She hadn't asked to stay with Maura, but the medical examiner insisted that it was nothing, though Jane secretly suspected the blonde was terrified to be alone. But then again, so was she.

Jane walked back to the bed and slipped in beside the doctor, resuming her previous position with her arms around Maura. The blonde doctor sighed and pressed herself into the lanky form of the detective. Her lips pressed against Jane's collarbone and nuzzled her neck.

"Hmmm, why Dr. Isles, are you trying to seduce me?" Jane smirked, but kept her eyes closed.

Maura smiled, kissing along Jane's jaw. "Is it working?" Her hand slipped dangerously high up under Jane's shirt, the tips of her fingers grazed the bottom of Jane's right breast.

"Fuck." Jane tried to arch into Maura's touch.

Maura smirked. "That's precisely what I plan to do." She pushed the detective down on her back and straddled her lap.

-/-

Angela Rizzoli looked slightly haggard as she opened the door. Jane hadn't seen much of her mother since the shooting at headquarters nearly three months prior. Between dealing with Frankie's death, spending all her free time in the hospital while Maura was recuperating, taking care of Maura when she got home, and then Veronica's crazy rampage, she hadn't been to her childhood home.

"Come in girls."

Jane had suggested this day to Maura, desperate to get the medical examiner out of the house. Maura didn't feel safe anywhere and it had put her in a constant state of paralysis. She was too afraid to be home, but she was also afraid to go back to work. Both she and Jane had been on mandatory leave for a six week period to "recover from the psychological trauma" of being on death's doorstep twice in a three month period. At least that had been Cavanaugh's explanation. She didn't care; she found it hard to look at her job in quite the same way. She still loved what she did, but it was tainted now, by the double betrayal. Since when did the good guys start transforming into the bad?

All the women were silent as they sat, drinking coffee, around the dining room table. No one knew what to say. Jane didn't want to talk about work; giving her mom the details of her second brush with death would be like torture. She'd begged Jane to quit her job right before Frankie's funeral and Jane had disregarded the request as the demands of an over-protective mother, but now she found herself wondering if maybe she should have listened this time.

"I'm sorry I missed the funeral, Mrs. Rizzoli. I wanted to be there, for Frankie, and for the whole family."

Jane head nearly flew off her neck with the force of how fast she turned to look at Maura, the shock on her face evident. She held her breath, figuring it would set her mother off. But Angela Rizzoli stood, walked around the table, and pulled the medical examiner up into her arms. She hugged Maura for a long time, but it was the medical examiner who began to cry, not Angela.

-/-

Jane stood across the street from the small, inconspicuous building. Maura was still back in Revere at her parents place. Angela Rizzoli had insisted that she and Maura stay and spend quality time at the Rizzoli family home. Jane had recieved a call and had volunteered to get the groceries for dinner with an ulterior motive in mind.

She crossed the street and entered the small shop. A familiar face stood behind the counter. The younger woman smiled.

"Hey stranger." Jane smiled. "How's your head?"

Erin ran a hand over the knit cap that held her dark hair at bay. "Stitches. It'll heal. What about Maura?"

"She's doing good. Her legs have healed completely and she was finally able to take that bandage off her neck."

Erin and Jane spent the next twenty minutes recalling the events that had transpired since the last time they had seen each other, the night Veronica had died.

Finally Jane found herself on a familiar staircase, going up to a small apartment. She knocked twice and opened the door.

He was there, waiting on the couch, as always.

"Detective."

"Doyle."

"I appreciate you for coming on such short notice."

Jane nodded. "It's the least I can do after all your help."

Patty Doyle nodded. "I'd like to ask a favor of you Jane."

Jane nodded. "Actually, I'd like to ask for a favor too."


	37. Center Of The Universe

DISCLAIMER:: not mine, yet again. just borrowing.

A/N:: so this is the final chapter. sigh. it's been a long trip. thanks to all the readers who stuck with me since the beginning and those who have been picked up along the journey. this story would be nothing, just a thought in my busy head, if not for all of you. i left this very open ended for a reason. now that i'm back in SF permanently, no more mountains, i'm thinking sequel? yes, no? let me know what you think. if there's enough interest i might not be so quick to retire my laptop. let me know!

-/-

Jane struggled with the door, juggling the bags and the keys. Suddenly, the door burst open. Maura stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

"Where have you been?"

Jane frowned. "Getting the groceries." She tried to move past Maura into the house, but Maura continued to block the doorway.

"You left nearly three hours ago Jane. It does not take three hours to go to the market."

Jane was about to defend herself but the moment before she opened her mouth, she saw the fear behind Maura's accusing glare. Jane set the grocery bags down on the porch and pulled the honey haired woman into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into Maura's hair.

She felt Maura's tense muscles relax the second she said those words, as if being in her arms made the ME feel safer.

"Janie! Is that you?"

Maura pulled reluctantly from Jane's arms and bent down, retrieving the bags and carrying them back into the house.

Jane followed behind her.

"What took you so long? We don't eat supper at midnight, ya know?" Angela didn't even look up from the fresh mozzarella she was slicing.

"Sorry Ma, I had to make an extra stop."

Maura looked at her questioningly, but Jane just shook her head and mouthed _'later'_.

-/-

Dinner was awkward, but Jane could tell it eased them all to be in the presence of family. Jane noticed how Angela kept glancing at the empty chair Frankie had once occupied and she couldn't help the twist of guilt in her gut when she thought how she used to despise having to find time in her busy work schedule to come to dinner every week. Now she found herself wishing that she'd never missed one.

It was with some reluctance that Maura and Jane departed the Rizzoli home after dinner.

"I really love your family." Maura glanced over from the passenger seat.

Jane smiled. "Really?"

Maura nodded and turned back to stare out the window.

Jane frowned. She didn't like the distance she saw in the brief glance.

"I saw Patty Doyle today. That's why it took me so long."

Maura's head whipped around and Jane could easily see the question in her eyes.

"He was calling in his favor."

Maura paled. "Is it… bad?"

Jane chuckled. "No, in fact I would have done it even if I didn't owe him."

Maura finally seemed excited about something for the first time since the Veronica's death. "So, what is it?"

"Erin wants to be Boston PD. She applied to the academy and he asked that I put in a few good words for her. He wants to keep her as far away from the lifestyle as possible."

Maura nodded slowly. "Has he told you who she is yet?"

Jane frowned as they pulled up to a red light. She glanced over at Maura, whose attention was conveniently focused on the light. "What?"

Maura shrugged. "The resemblance between us is remarkable, Jane, don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Jane sighed. "He told me she's not his daughter, but he's taking care of her for an old friend."

"My mother."

Jane nodded. "He didn't say as much but that's the conclusion I came to. It's the eyes."

Maura nodded.

They finished the rest of the ride in silence and when they pulled up in front of Maura's house, Jane was feeling even more distant from the light haired woman.

She saw a look of dread pass across the ME's gaze as she looked up at the house.

"How 'bout we stay at a hotel tonight?"

Maura looked over and nodded, but Jane saw the relief and gratefulness that flooded her gaze.

-/-

Jane traced the scars on her palms, evidence of Hoyt's treachery. She looked down at the scar that marred the normally perfect flesh of Maura's neck, the result of another psychotic individual's sick obsession.

_We've both been a victim of the lifestyle I've chosen. Maybe this is a crossroads for me. Maybe we should move out, to some place more safe. I need to get her away from that house. I need to get away from that house. We could move out to Newton._ She thought of a vicious murder she'd investigated out there and shook her head. _No, not Newton. We could go to Revere, be closer to my parents. Or we could just stay there in Brookline. It was one of the safer suburbs in Boston. But we would need to move out of that house. I just need to make sure I protect her._

She glanced at Maura, still sleeping, soundly for the first time since the incident in Jane's apartment. In that moment, Jane knew everything in her world now revolved around making Maura Isles happy. She was now the center of Jane's entire universe.

_I am so in love with you. When did that happen?_ She smiled to herself. _Does it matter when it happened?_

"Jane?"

Jane snapped out of her thoughts the second she heard the medical examiner's voice. She looked down into an unwavering gaze that was studying her intently.

"Hmm?"

Maura tilted her head in the cute way she always did when her curiosity was piqued. "What are you doing up this late? You need to sleep just as much as I do."

"Just thinking?"

Maura sat up. "Anything you want to share with the class?"

Jane smiled and in one swift motion, she pulled the honey haired woman into her lap. "Actually yeah."

Maura smiled and it reached her eyes for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"I was just thinking…" Jane's gaze dropped in momentary contemplation of the words she was about to say. She lifted her gaze and Maura saw determination in her eyes. "Will you marry me?"


End file.
